Centre Asset Management LLC Acquires New Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Centre Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 512,207 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,946,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Walter Public Investments Inc. boosted its stake in TELUS by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont grew its holdings in TELUS by 19.0% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in TELUS by 58.0% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in TELUS by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 77,198 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $1,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

TELUS stock traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $13.73. The stock had a trading volume of 254,671 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,671,826. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $18.55. The company has a market cap of $20.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. TELUS’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.297 dividend. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 253.19%.

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.