Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 60,644 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 59.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 40,946 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 60,644 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 195,100.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 1,951 shares during the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in TELUS by 1,756.0% during the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth about $146,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 25.6% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Leo Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $279,000. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on TU. Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $14.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. TELUS Co. has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.27. The firm has a market cap of $21.63 billion, a PE ratio of 29.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $14.86 and its 200-day moving average is $15.23.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced 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 for 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 226.53%.

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.