Baskin Financial Services Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Baskin Financial Services Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 41.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 289,806 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 205,822 shares during the quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc.'s holdings in TELUS were worth $5,155,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in TELUS by 80.8% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in TELUS by 18.1% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,669 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 717 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in TELUS by 125,940.0% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,302 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 6,297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in TELUS by 59.3% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,666 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $148,000 after purchasing an additional 2,109 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $15.95. The company had a trading volume of 4,799,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,481,280. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $15.47 and a twelve month high of $21.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $23.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.72. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $17.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.34.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 4.18%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2793 per share. This is a boost from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.00%. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 258.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TU has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $26.00 target price (down previously from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut TELUS from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $27.72.

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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