International Assets Investment Management LLC Makes New $298,000 Investment in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 16,758 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $298,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 80.8% in the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 739 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in TELUS in the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in TELUS during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $172,000. Armistice Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $177,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at $187,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on TU shares. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price (down previously from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com cut TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of TELUS from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.72.

TELUS Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $16.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.26. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $15.35 and a 12-month high of $21.28. The company has a market capitalization of $23.71 billion, a PE ratio of 37.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 4.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.2793 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.95%. TELUS’s payout ratio is 255.81%.

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.