Amundi Boosts Stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Amundi lifted its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 13.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,396,362 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 163,984 shares during the period. Amundi’s holdings in TELUS were worth $19,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $7,839,000 after purchasing an additional 129,934 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in TELUS by 159.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,360,000 after buying an additional 86,393 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in TELUS by 192.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,257,000 after buying an additional 872,235 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in TELUS in the 3rd quarter worth $945,000. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $17,801,000 after buying an additional 279,000 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Down 0.7 %

TU opened at $15.01 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.36. TELUS Co. has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.27. The company has a market capitalization of $22.51 billion, a PE ratio of 30.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. Analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 7.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 226.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TU. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.