TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Stake Cut by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 27.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 56,300 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 21,204 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $763,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TU. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in TELUS by 24.2% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 5,094,269 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 1.3% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $283,854,000 after buying an additional 211,815 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $112,610,000 after buying an additional 49,088 shares in the last quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in TELUS by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,233,944 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $54,249,000 after acquiring an additional 263,774 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its position in TELUS by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,785,000 after acquiring an additional 317,000 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Up 1.7 %

TU stock opened at $15.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $23.44 billion, a PE ratio of 31.89, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $13.24 and a 12 month high of $17.77. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.38.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 226.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley began coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.