The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 3,435,009 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company cut its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 37.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,643,602 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 3,435,009 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in TELUS were worth $94,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 60.4% during the 2nd 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. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth about $123,000. Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Finally, Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth about $141,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on TU shares. Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut shares of TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $15.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.05. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $14.63 and a 12-month high of $19.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. Research analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.297 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.67%. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 244.69%.

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.