Gabelli Funds LLC Sells 25,000 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Gabelli Funds LLC cut its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 427,000 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 25,000 shares during the quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $6,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TU. Blue Trust Inc. grew 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 worth $41,000 after buying an additional 954 shares during the period. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd grew its holdings in TELUS by 39.8% during the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in TELUS in the first quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new stake in TELUS in the first quarter worth $71,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the second quarter worth $123,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $16.68 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.76, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.74. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $19.14. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.284 per share. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.81%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 294.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on TU. Canaccord Genuity Group cut shares of TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.33.

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.