AGF Management Ltd. Decreases Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

AGF Management Ltd. trimmed its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 13.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,983,052 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 800,232 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.34% of TELUS worth $88,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 387,561 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in TELUS by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 21,630,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $353,226,000 after acquiring an additional 533,306 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in TELUS by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 21,540,649 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $352,841,000 after acquiring an additional 368,650 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 10.2% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 16,675,010 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $272,179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,542,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 7.6% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 15,971,196 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $260,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126,322 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Scotiabank restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $26.00 price objective (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $27.72.

TELUS Trading Down 1.9 %

TELUS stock traded down $0.31 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $16.10. 4,331,018 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,283,364. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $16.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.24. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $15.35 and a twelve month high of $20.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.76 billion, a PE ratio of 41.28, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.71.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.01. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.87% and a net margin of 3.73%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. The business's revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.282 per share. This is an increase from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.01%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 284.62%.

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.