Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Buys Shares of 1,073,616 TELUS Corporation $TU

Key Points

• Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought 1.07 million TELUS shares valued at approximately $13.8 million, giving it a 0.07% stake. Institutional investors collectively own 49.4% of the company.
• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating on TELUS, with five Buy, five Hold, and three Sell recommendations and an average price target of $15.67.
• TELUS shares opened at $10.41, near the lower end of their $9.95–$16.72 one-year range. The company reported quarterly EPS of $0.17 versus $0.16 expected and maintains a high annualized dividend of $1.67 per share, yielding 16.1%.

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,073,616 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock, valued at approximately $13,794,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund owned 0.07% of TELUS as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 320.0% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 2,247 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,712 shares in the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC bought a new position in TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA grew its position in TELUS by 129.0% in the 4th quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA now owns 2,473 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 1,393 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in TELUS during the 2nd quarter valued at about $61,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. TD Securities raised TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on TELUS in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. Finally, TD Cowen raised TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $15.67.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU opened at $10.41 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $11.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.66, a PEG ratio of 7.93 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.63. TELUS Corporation has a one year low of $9.95 and a one year high of $16.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The firm's revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.4184 per share. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 16.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. TELUS's payout ratio is presently 275.00%.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation NYSE: TU is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TU? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.