Nexus Investment Management ULC Purchases 38,450 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Nexus Investment Management ULC grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,225,265 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying an additional 38,450 shares during the quarter. TELUS accounts for about 3.0% of Nexus Investment Management ULC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Nexus Investment Management ULC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $30,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in TELUS in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in TELUS by 195,100.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in TELUS by 58.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the second quarter valued at approximately $123,000. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $13.94 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a market capitalization of $20.90 billion, a PE ratio of 29.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.74. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $18.55. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.59.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its 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. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.53%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 242.56%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TU. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.