Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. Sells 1,358,075 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. reduced its position in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 61.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 857,099 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 1,358,075 shares during the quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. owned 0.06% of TELUS worth $14,395,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,436,455 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $375,218,000 after acquiring an additional 602,440 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 143,106 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,289,000 after acquiring an additional 10,327 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 11.2% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,252,092 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $20,050,000 after acquiring an additional 126,488 shares during the period. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $649,000. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TU. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE TU opened at $15.21 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $16.08 and its 200 day moving average is $16.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $19.14. The stock has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a PE ratio of 32.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.19 EPS. Research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.81%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 244.69%.

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.