Pacifica Partners Inc. Increases Stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Pacifica Partners Inc. grew its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 159,459 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,770 shares during the period. Pacifica Partners Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $2,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 38,193,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $578,253,000 after purchasing an additional 2,365,753 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 1.3% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $283,854,000 after buying an additional 211,815 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in TELUS by 5.4% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $188,835,000 after acquiring an additional 636,845 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 0.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $112,610,000 after acquiring an additional 49,088 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE TU opened at $13.73 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $18.55. The business has a fifty day moving average of $14.69 and a 200-day moving average of $15.63. The stock has a market cap of $20.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a dividend of $0.297 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.65%. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 240.43%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TU has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Company 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.