Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. Boosts Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,403,521 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 169,577 shares during the quarter. TELUS comprises about 3.4% of Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.23% of TELUS worth $46,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TU. National Bank of Canada FI increased 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 buying an additional 5,094,269 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in TELUS by 192.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,257,000 after acquiring an additional 872,235 shares during the last quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth $6,946,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its position in TELUS by 13.5% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the period. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $17,801,000 after purchasing an additional 279,000 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TU. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $15.82 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. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.50. The stock has a market cap of $23.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $14.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.38.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. As a group, 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.15%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 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.