TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Position Lessened by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 3.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 77,504 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 3,000 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in TELUS by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 38,193,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $578,253,000 after acquiring an additional 2,365,753 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in TELUS by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,670,713 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $252,468,000 after acquiring an additional 1,501,742 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 192.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 5.4% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $188,835,000 after purchasing an additional 636,845 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU opened at $13.78 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a 50-day moving average of $14.98 and a 200-day moving average of $15.71. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $18.55. The firm has a market cap of $20.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.297 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.62%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 253.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TU. StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently 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.