TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Shares Sold by TD Asset Management Inc.

TD Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 38,445,822 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 2,271,430 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $521,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,801,407 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $349,841,000 after acquiring an additional 903,921 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of TELUS by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 279,527 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $3,790,000 after purchasing an additional 7,447 shares during the period. Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,325,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in TELUS by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in TELUS by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 119,665 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,623,000 after buying an additional 5,286 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Stock Down 1.0 %

TU stock opened at $13.80 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $14.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The company has a market capitalization of $20.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. TELUS Co. has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.27.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results 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. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.