Shell Asset Management Co. Acquires 34,547 Shares of TELUS Corporation $TU

Key Points

• Shell Asset Management Co. increased its holdings in TELUS Corporation by 40.9% during the second quarter, acquiring an additional 34,547 shares to own a total of 119,100 shares valued at $1.91 million.
• TELUS Corporation recently reported a quarterly EPS of $0.16, falling short of analysts' expectations, despite witnessing a revenue growth of 2.2% year-over-year to $3.74 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.3019 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 8.0%, but also noted a high dividend payout ratio of 263.04%.

Shell Asset Management Co. lifted its position in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 40.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 119,100 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after purchasing an additional 34,547 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.'s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,185,917 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $375,585,000 after purchasing an additional 384,510 shares during the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 9.2% during the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 1,938,521 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 18,553,552 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $266,146,000 after purchasing an additional 831,282 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake 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 worth $233,606,000 after purchasing an additional 192,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 196.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,836,479 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $169,735,000 after purchasing an additional 7,840,264 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $21.50.

TELUS Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of TU opened at $15.17 on Thursday. TELUS Corporation has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $16.74. The firm has a market cap of $23.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.71. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $16.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.76. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.01). TELUS had a net margin of 4.67% and a return on equity of 9.10%. The company had revenue of $3.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.25 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th were given a dividend of $0.3019 per share. This represents a $1.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 10th. This is a boost from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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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