MQS Management LLC Sells 18,555 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

MQS Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 33.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,814 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 18,555 shares during the quarter. MQS Management LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS in the second quarter worth $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the first quarter worth about $58,000. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% in the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS in the 2nd quarter worth $123,000. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

TELUS Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $15.69 on Wednesday. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $19.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.40 billion, a PE ratio of 33.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.75.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 244.69%.

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.