The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires Shares of 9,520,314 TELUS Corporation $TU

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 9,520,314 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $100,492,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of TU. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the second quarter worth about $255,178,000. FIL Ltd grew its stake in TELUS by 112.9% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 30,300,204 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $399,352,000 after acquiring an additional 16,066,539 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at about $83,707,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in TELUS by 40.0% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,033,455 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $142,387,000 after acquiring an additional 2,583,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in TELUS by 20.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,500,760 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $164,635,000 after acquiring an additional 2,091,819 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TU has been the topic of several recent research reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce cut TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Desjardins cut TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. TD Cowen upgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut TELUS from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $15.33.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU opened at $9.81 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.97. TELUS Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.20 and a 1-year high of $16.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.94, a PEG ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.64.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.16 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $3.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.55 billion. TELUS had a negative net margin of 4.51% and a positive return on equity of 8.01%. Analysts forecast that TELUS Corporation will post 0.57 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be given a $0.1875 dividend. This represents a $0.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently -295.12%.

TELUS Profile

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.