TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Shares Sold by K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc

K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 38.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 148,908 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 93,185 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc’s holdings in TELUS were worth $2,027,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after acquiring an additional 129,934 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its position in TELUS by 159.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 86,393 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in TELUS by 192.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in TELUS in the third quarter valued at about $945,000. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 35.7% during the third quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $17,801,000 after purchasing an additional 279,000 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $15.65 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $17.77. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.40. The firm has a market cap of $23.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.94, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.23%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 224.49%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TU shares. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Company 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.