Mufg Securities Canada LTD. Grows Stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Mufg Securities Canada LTD. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 68.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 912,277 shares during the period. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. owned 0.15% of TELUS worth $30,299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in TELUS by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after purchasing an additional 129,934 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in TELUS by 132.4% in the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 479,785 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $8,048,000 after buying an additional 273,368 shares during the period. 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 valued at $44,785,000 after acquiring an additional 317,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 1,017,200 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $13,785,000 after acquiring an additional 65,940 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $13.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $21.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.39, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $17.27. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $14.84 and its 200 day moving average is $15.24.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.13%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

TELUS Company 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.