Anson Funds Management LP Sells 50,000 Shares of TELUS Corporation $TU

Key Points

• Anson Funds Management LP reduced its holdings in TELUS Corporation by 33.3%, selling 50,000 shares and leaving it with a total of 100,000 shares worth $1,435,000.
• TELUS recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.3019 per share, representing an annualized yield of 7.6% and a dividend payout ratio of 263.04%.
• Analysts have an average rating of "Hold" on TELUS stock, with a consensus price target of $21.50, following a mixed quarterly earnings report where EPS missed expectations.

Anson Funds Management LP cut its holdings in TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 33.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 100,000 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 50,000 shares during the period. Anson Funds Management LP's holdings in TELUS were worth $1,435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in TELUS by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $667,840,000 after purchasing an additional 9,068,181 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in TELUS by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,185,917 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $375,585,000 after buying an additional 384,510 shares in the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 9.2% in the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 22,899,251 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $328,588,000 after buying an additional 1,938,521 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 4.7% in the first quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 18,553,552 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $266,146,000 after buying an additional 831,282 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,270,907 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $233,606,000 after buying an additional 192,599 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Scotiabank restated an "outperform" rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $21.50.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $15.84 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $24.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $16.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.70. TELUS Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.86.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.63 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.67% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.3019 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a $1.21 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.6%. This is a boost from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 263.04%.

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.

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