Seven Eight Capital LP Reduces Stock Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Seven Eight Capital LP lowered its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 79.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 46,743 shares during the quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP’s holdings in TELUS were worth $179,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in TU. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of TELUS by 215.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 22,214,210 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $395,314,000 after buying an additional 15,179,110 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of TELUS by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 40,669,392 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $727,275,000 after buying an additional 6,334,692 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in TELUS by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 28,705,377 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $511,646,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860,487 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in TELUS by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,798,166 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $67,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,704,788 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp increased its position in TELUS by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,670,713 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $252,468,000 after purchasing an additional 1,501,742 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.33.

TELUS Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $16.68 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $14.63 and a 12-month high of $19.14. The firm has a market cap of $24.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.76, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.74.

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 firm had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be paid a $0.284 dividend. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.81%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 10th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 294.87%.

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.