Geode Capital Management LLC Purchases 177,953 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 177,953 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.16% of TELUS worth $40,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TU. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 13.4% during the second quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 85,648 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,297,000 after purchasing an additional 10,141 shares during the period. VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. raised its holdings in TELUS by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. now owns 42,945 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $650,000 after acquiring an additional 4,001 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 70,573 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 3,752 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 128.5% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 284,219 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $4,303,000 after purchasing an additional 159,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of TELUS by 3.4% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 70,821 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TU has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 1.3 %

TU opened at $13.57 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $15.44 and its 200-day moving average is $15.86. The company has a market cap of $20.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.87, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $13.54 and a 1-year high of $18.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.297 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.75%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 253.19%.

TELUS 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.