Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 153,791 TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 153,791 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,085,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 192.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $22,257,000 after acquiring an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,946,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 132.4% in the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 479,785 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $8,048,000 after purchasing an additional 273,368 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an "equal weight" rating for the company. National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold".

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU traded up $0.46 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $14.45. The stock had a trading volume of 552,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,656,440. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $14.88 and a 200-day moving average of $15.15. The firm has a market cap of $21.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.26.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.83%. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is presently 226.53%.

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.