Clearbridge Investments LLC Has $90 Million Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Clearbridge Investments LLC decreased its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,944,050 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 138,664 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $90,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gold Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in TELUS by 0.7% in the second quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Walter Public Investments Inc. increased its position in TELUS by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 653 shares in the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd raised its stake 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 buying an additional 784 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 60.4% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Affirmative Financial Network grew its stake in TELUS by 5.0% in the first quarter. First Affirmative Financial Network now owns 23,169 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,097 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Price Performance

TU opened at $16.65 on Thursday. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $14.63 and a 1 year high of $19.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $24.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $16.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.13.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th were paid a $0.284 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.82%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 10th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 294.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on TU. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.33.

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.