Virtu Financial LLC Buys New Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 57,594 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $781,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of TU. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in TELUS by 195,100.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 1,756.0% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter worth about $142,000. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter worth about $146,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 25.6% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:TU opened at $13.80 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $14.84 and a 200-day moving average of $15.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.89 billion, a PE ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. TELUS Co. has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.27.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (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 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 return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. Analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.