TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Shares Acquired by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $41,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management acquired a new stake in TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 39.8% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the first quarter worth $58,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in TELUS by 104.3% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,891 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,986 shares during the period. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in TELUS in the first quarter valued at $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TU has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.33.

TELUS Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $16.09 on Friday. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.63 and a fifty-two week high of $19.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $23.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.30.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. The company 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 prior year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.284 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 287.18%.

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.