Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $1.18 Million Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 52.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,507 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,023 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in TELUS by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 40,669,392 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $727,275,000 after purchasing an additional 6,334,692 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in TELUS by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 35,614,595 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $633,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,999 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in TELUS by 15.5% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 28,705,377 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $511,646,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860,487 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in TELUS by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 22,881,520 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $407,205,000 after buying an additional 1,250,827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in TELUS by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,834,015 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $406,217,000 after buying an additional 1,044,988 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of TU stock opened at $15.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.75. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.04 and its 200-day moving average is $16.79. The stock has a market cap of $22.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.15, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.73. TELUS Co. has a 52-week low of $14.63 and a 52-week high of $19.59.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 3.73% and a return on equity of 7.90%. Sell-side analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were issued a $0.282 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.39%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 289.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TU has been the topic of several analyst reports. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $26.00 price target (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.72.

TELUS 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.