Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires New Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,360 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $71,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 80.8% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd lifted its stake in TELUS by 39.8% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 104.3% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,891 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,986 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU traded down $0.19 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $14.92. 3,118,800 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,362,936. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.73. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $14.63 and a twelve month high of $19.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $16.12 and a 200 day moving average of $16.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.73 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 3.73% and a return on equity of 7.90%. On average, analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $0.282 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s payout ratio is 287.18%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TU has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday, March 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.72.

About TELUS

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.