Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $4.86 Million Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund decreased its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 43.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 303,330 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 235,258 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in TELUS were worth $4,855,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TU. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd lifted its position in TELUS by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 13,631 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 892 shares during the last quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC increased its position in TELUS by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 18,180 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. First Affirmative Financial Network lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 5.0% during the first quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 23,169 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 1,097 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 91,468 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,627,000 after buying an additional 1,418 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.20.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $15.83 on Friday. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $19.14. The company has a market capitalization of $23.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $15.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.73 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.90% and a net margin of 3.73%. As a group, equities analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th were paid a $0.282 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.13%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 292.32%.

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.