Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Increases Stake in TELUS Corporation $TU

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 58.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 165,287 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,123 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in TELUS were worth $2,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in TELUS by 40.0% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,033,455 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $142,387,000 after acquiring an additional 2,583,074 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its holdings in TELUS by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 17,867,796 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $281,326,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725,982 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in TELUS by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 18,764,954 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $295,645,000 after acquiring an additional 1,566,983 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in TELUS by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,553,587 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $449,748,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255,029 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. grew its holdings in TELUS by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,687,766 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $310,129,000 after acquiring an additional 845,682 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on TU shares. TD Cowen upgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Scotiabank cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Wall Street Zen raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $14.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.33.

TELUS Stock Down 1.3%

TU stock opened at $12.21 on Friday. TELUS Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $11.69 and a fifty-two week high of $16.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $12.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $18.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 0.61.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 4.54%.The firm had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.4184 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.7%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 279.55%.

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.