Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Acquires 86,393 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board grew its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 159.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after purchasing an additional 86,393 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in TELUS were worth $2,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in TELUS in the 3rd quarter worth about $945,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 11.2% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,252,092 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $20,050,000 after purchasing an additional 126,488 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in TELUS by 5.4% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $188,835,000 after purchasing an additional 636,845 shares during the period. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 35.7% in the third quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $17,801,000 after purchasing an additional 279,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in TELUS in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $680,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

TELUS Stock Performance

TU traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $15.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,209,084 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,303,709. The business has a 50-day moving average of $16.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $14.63 and a 1 year high of $19.14. The company has a market cap of $23.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This is a positive change from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.66%. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is currently 253.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TU. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Company Profile

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; healthcare services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services, as well as mobile and fixed voice and data telecommunications services and products.