TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Shares Acquired by Versant Capital Management Inc

Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 195,100.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in TELUS were worth $26,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in TELUS by 58.0% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in TELUS during the second quarter worth approximately $123,000. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the 2nd quarter valued at $163,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

TELUS Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $13.98 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $18.55. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.68. The firm has a market cap of $20.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. TELUS’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share 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 8.50%. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 253.19%.

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.