Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Purchases 2,571 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 0.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,783,173 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,571 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in TELUS were worth $26,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in TELUS by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Walter Public Investments Inc. boosted its stake in TELUS by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the period. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd boosted its stake in TELUS by 39.8% in the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in TELUS by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 954 shares during the period. Finally, First Affirmative Financial Network boosted its stake in TELUS by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 23,169 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on TU. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.33.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU opened at $16.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.71 billion, a PE ratio of 42.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $16.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.16. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $14.63 and a 12-month high of $19.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.284 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.79%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 294.87%.

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.