Pacifica Partners Inc. Boosts Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Pacifica Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 159,459 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,770 shares during the period. Pacifica Partners Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $2,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of TU. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at $6,946,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of TELUS by 195,100.0% in 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 period. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in TELUS in the third quarter valued at $320,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in TELUS by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $40,238,000 after acquiring an additional 177,953 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its stake in TELUS by 13.5% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,785,000 after acquiring an additional 317,000 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE TU opened at $13.73 on Wednesday. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $14.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.63. The stock has a market cap of $20.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.65%. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 240.43%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TU. StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS 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.