Invesco Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,993,662 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after purchasing an additional 326,531 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. owned 0.73% of TELUS worth $149,074,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its stake in TELUS by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 88,180 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $1,197,000 after buying an additional 1,346 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in TELUS by 195,100.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in TELUS by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 87,419 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 2,840 shares during the period. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in TELUS by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company's stock.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE TU traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.00. 2,639,824 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,844,755. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.27. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $14.86 and a 200 day moving average of $14.96. The company has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last posted 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 return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on TU. Bank of America cut shares of TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark lowered 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 assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold".

TELUS Company 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.