Swiss National Bank Sells 45,200 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,428,265 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 45,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in TELUS were worth $19,356,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in TELUS by 195,100.0% in the 4th 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 grew its stake in TELUS by 1,756.0% in the 4th 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. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $146,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 25.6% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Leo Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $279,000. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on TU shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set 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, March 4th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:TU opened at $15.00 on Wednesday. TELUS Co. has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.27. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $14.80 and a 200 day moving average of $15.33. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.60, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.55%. TELUS’s dividend 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.