Alberta Investment Management Corp Sells 275,000 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Alberta Investment Management Corp lessened its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,934,200 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 275,000 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp’s holdings in TELUS were worth $39,763,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in TELUS by 195,100.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in TELUS by 1,756.0% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in TELUS by 58.0% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new stake in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth about $146,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in TELUS during the third quarter worth about $187,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on TU shares. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

TU stock opened at $15.22 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $14.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.44. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $13.24 and a 1-year high of $18.16. 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 firm has a market cap of $22.82 billion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.44%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 232.65%.

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.