Nicola Wealth Management LTD. Raises Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,093,119 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 32,300 shares during the period. TELUS makes up about 1.6% of Nicola Wealth Management LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. owned approximately 0.07% of TELUS worth $14,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in TELUS by 24.2% during 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in TELUS by 192.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,946,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake 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 valued at $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in TELUS by 132.4% during the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 479,785 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $8,048,000 after purchasing an additional 273,368 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on TU shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:TU opened at $15.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.63, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.75. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $13.24 and a 1-year high of $17.77. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $14.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

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

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.30%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 224.49%.

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.