Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Trims Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC cut its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 71,460 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 4,602 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $969,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 38.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $7,839,000 after purchasing an additional 129,934 shares during the last quarter. 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 valued at $22,257,000 after buying an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 13.5% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the period. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc boosted its position in TELUS by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 1,017,200 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $13,785,000 after buying an additional 65,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centre Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,946,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $14.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The company has a market cap of $21.76 billion, a PE ratio of 29.34, 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 $17.27.

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

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on TU shares. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark lowered TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.