Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Buys 1,346 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,180 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,346 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,197,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 129,934 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 273,368 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 317,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,521,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America cut shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

TELUS stock opened at $13.94 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company’s 50-day moving average is $14.84 and its 200 day moving average is $15.30.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. The business 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 period last year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.12%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 226.53%.

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.