Tobam Sells 86,659 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Tobam trimmed its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 82.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,677 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 86,659 shares during the period. Tobam's holdings in TELUS were worth $334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 1.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,789,027 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $356,033,000 after buying an additional 387,561 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 489,969 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $8,001,000 after acquiring an additional 65,287 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in shares of TELUS by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 3,166,300 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $51,944,000 after acquiring an additional 46,000 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 60,000 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $1,067,000 after purchasing an additional 11,000 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 14,354,382 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $235,054,000 after purchasing an additional 382,845 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Down 1.4 %

NYSE TU traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $16.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,657,044 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,507,251. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $17.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.30. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $15.47 and a twelve month high of $21.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.21, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.72.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were issued a $0.2793 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. This is a positive change from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 258.14%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on TU shares. Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $26.00 target price (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, March 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of TELUS from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $27.72.

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.