Wells Fargo & Company MN Sells 28,946 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Wells Fargo & Company MN lessened its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 23.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 97,024 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 28,946 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN's holdings in TELUS were worth $1,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of TU. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,801,407 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $349,841,000 after buying an additional 903,921 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at about $70,212,000. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of TELUS by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,403,521 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $46,088,000 after purchasing an additional 169,577 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 29.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,032,404 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $42,389,000 after purchasing an additional 696,744 shares during the period. Finally, Mufg Securities Canada LTD. raised its position in shares of TELUS by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $30,299,000 after buying an additional 912,277 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America lowered TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold".

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TU traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $15.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,011,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,863,968. 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 Co. has a one year low of $13.24 and a one year high of $17.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $14.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $14.86.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.53%. TELUS's payout ratio is presently 226.53%.

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.