Federated Hermes Inc. Purchases 610,416 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 36.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,272,505 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after buying an additional 610,416 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.16% of TELUS worth $40,428,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in TU. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. raised its position in TELUS by 60.9% in the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 14,694 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 5,560 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in TELUS by 36.2% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 29,093 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $761,000 after purchasing an additional 7,737 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in TELUS by 59.3% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,666 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $148,000 after purchasing an additional 2,109 shares during the period. Aviva PLC raised its position in TELUS by 156.0% in the first quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 479,131 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $12,536,000 after purchasing an additional 291,979 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new position in TELUS in the first quarter valued at about $206,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:TU traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.92. The stock had a trading volume of 1,818,282 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,246,994. The company has a market capitalization of $23.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.72. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $15.35 and a 1-year high of $21.34. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $16.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 4.18%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a $0.2793 dividend. This is an increase from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. TELUS's payout ratio is presently 258.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on TU. Scotiabank reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $26.00 price objective (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, March 25th. StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered TELUS from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock 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.