Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Acquires 159,359 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,531,717 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 159,359 shares during the period. TELUS makes up approximately 1.7% of Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $88,516,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 1,756.0% in the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 4,548 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the 4th quarter worth $120,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter worth $142,000. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new position in TELUS in the 4th quarter worth $146,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at $190,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Trading Up 6.8%

TU stock opened at $15.94 on Monday. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.27. The firm has a market cap of $24.13 billion, a PE ratio of 32.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $14.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were issued a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.10%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America downgraded TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

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.