FIL Ltd Sells 88,434 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

FIL Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,488,443 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 88,434 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd owned 0.63% of TELUS worth $128,651,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in TELUS by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 88,180 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $1,197,000 after acquiring an additional 1,346 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in TELUS by 195,100.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in TELUS by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 87,419 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 2,840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in TELUS by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 3,110 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $14.74. The stock had a trading volume of 608,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,843,799. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.99. The stock has a market cap of $22.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.68%. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on TU. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America lowered TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an "equal weight" rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold".

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.