Alberta Investment Management Corp Cuts Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Alberta Investment Management Corp lowered its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,934,200 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 275,000 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp owned about 0.20% of TELUS worth $39,763,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $512,000. Ingalls & Snyder LLC increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 22,980 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of TELUS by 121.2% during the 4th quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. now owns 31,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 17,320 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas raised its position in shares of TELUS by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas now owns 44,909 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 5,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vest Financial LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 43.3% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 64,340 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $872,000 after buying an additional 19,430 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TU has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an "equal weight" rating for the company. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE:TU traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.60. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,322,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,755,359. 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 $23.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.75. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $14.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.42. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $18.16.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's payout ratio is currently 224.49%.

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.