Mariner LLC Sells 18,978 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Mariner LLC lessened its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 27.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,289 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 18,978 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC's holdings in TELUS were worth $668,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 30,219,141 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $409,662,000 after purchasing an additional 6,659,564 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth $70,212,000. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. lifted its stake in TELUS by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $30,299,000 after acquiring an additional 912,277 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of TELUS by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,801,407 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $349,841,000 after acquiring an additional 903,921 shares during the period. Finally, Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of TELUS during the 4th quarter worth about $12,325,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company's stock.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU opened at $15.17 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.88. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $13.24 and a 1-year high of $17.27. The stock has a market cap of $22.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.95, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 226.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on TU. Bank of America lowered TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS has a consensus rating of "Hold".

About TELUS

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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