LPL Financial LLC Increases Stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 279,527 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,447 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $3,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 69.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 256,506 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $4,308,000 after acquiring an additional 104,939 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in TELUS by 25.6% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in TELUS in the third quarter worth about $1,509,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 38.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after buying an additional 129,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $40,238,000 after buying an additional 177,953 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TU opened at $14.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $14.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.01. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of $13.24 and a 1-year high of $17.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.85%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 226.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Finally, Cormark downgraded 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.