TELUS Corporation $TU Shares Acquired by Vest Financial LLC

Vest Financial LLC increased its position in TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 97.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 357,705 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 176,316 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $4,711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 233,924 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $3,087,000 after buying an additional 16,823 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 31,454 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 869 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,470,046 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $388,415,000 after purchasing an additional 916,459 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at $323,000. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,670 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TU shares. TD Cowen raised TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. Bank of America raised TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $14.50 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered TELUS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.63.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $12.22 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.49. TELUS Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.69 and a 52 week high of $16.74. The firm has a market cap of $18.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.86.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.03). TELUS had a net margin of 5.42% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The business had revenue of $3.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were given a $0.4184 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.7%. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 234.62%.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.