Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 48.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 80,504 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 76,900 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new stake in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,100,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of TELUS by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,252,092 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $20,050,000 after acquiring an additional 126,488 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in TELUS by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,834,015 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $406,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,988 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new stake in TELUS during the 1st quarter worth about $1,991,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $376,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on TU. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.33.

TELUS Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $16.97 on Friday. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $14.63 and a twelve month high of $19.14. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.15 billion, a PE ratio of 43.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. On average, 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 will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be given a dividend of $0.284 per share. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.69%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 292.32%.

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.