Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Raises Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 159.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm 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 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 0.7% during the second quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Walter Public Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $567,000 after buying an additional 653 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 954 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont grew its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 1,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $15.51 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $16.17 and its 200 day moving average is $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. The stock has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.99, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.75. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $14.63 and a twelve month high of $19.14.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.66%. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 253.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on TU shares. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

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.