Grassi Investment Management Sells 4,900 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Grassi Investment Management lessened its position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 25.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,050 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 4,900 shares during the period. Grassi Investment Management’s holdings in TELUS were worth $236,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 60.4% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the first quarter worth approximately $58,000. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the first quarter worth approximately $71,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the second quarter worth approximately $123,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on TU. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded shares of TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of TU opened at $16.17 on Thursday. TELUS Co. has a one year low of $14.63 and a one year high of $19.14. The company has a market cap of $23.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.09. TELUS had a net margin of 3.87% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th were issued a dividend of $0.284 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 10th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.03%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 287.50%.

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.