Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 116,625 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lessened its position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 22.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 409,028 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 116,625 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.'s holdings in TELUS were worth $5,537,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of TELUS by 69.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 256,506 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $4,308,000 after buying an additional 104,939 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,509,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $7,839,000 after buying an additional 129,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in TELUS by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $40,238,000 after buying an additional 177,953 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Cormark lowered TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, TELUS has a consensus rating of "Hold".

TELUS Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of TU traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.00. 2,639,824 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,849,346. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $13.24 and a 12 month high of $17.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.60, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70. The stock's 50-day moving average is $14.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.95.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.55%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 226.53%.

TELUS 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.