Cumberland Partners Ltd Reduces Stock Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Cumberland Partners Ltd trimmed its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 83.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,424 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 66,400 shares during the period. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in TELUS were worth $182,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $283,854,000 after buying an additional 211,815 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $112,610,000 after buying an additional 49,088 shares in the last quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,233,944 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $54,249,000 after buying an additional 263,774 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after buying an additional 317,000 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of TU opened at $15.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $18.16. The business’s 50 day moving average is $14.19 and its 200 day moving average is $15.42. The company has a market capitalization of $23.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.07 and a beta of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. Research analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 232.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TU. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

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.