Summit Global Investments Increases Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Summit Global Investments boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 533.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 432,437 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 364,149 shares during the quarter. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in TELUS were worth $5,864,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TU. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $112,610,000 after acquiring an additional 49,088 shares during the period. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,403,521 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $46,088,000 after acquiring an additional 169,577 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings 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 worth $44,785,000 after acquiring an additional 317,000 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $40,238,000 after acquiring an additional 177,953 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS presently has a consensus 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 quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The company has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.44, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $14.84 and its 200 day moving average is $15.30. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $17.27.

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

TELUS Cuts Dividend

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

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.