Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC Sells 110,331 Shares of TELUS Corporation $TU

Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC reduced its position in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 42.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 150,000 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 110,331 shares during the quarter. Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,976,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in TELUS by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,478,636 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $117,922,000 after buying an additional 743,471 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at $894,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its holdings in TELUS by 108.8% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 423,285 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $6,667,000 after purchasing an additional 220,552 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in TELUS by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,553,587 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $449,748,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255,029 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in TELUS by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 36,863,219 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $580,740,000 after purchasing an additional 550,574 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $14.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of TELUS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, TD Securities upgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.33.

TELUS Stock Up 0.6%

NYSE:TU opened at $12.57 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $12.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.19. The company has a market capitalization of $19.79 billion, a PE ratio of 28.57, a P/E/G ratio of 12.27 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.63. TELUS Corporation has a 1-year low of $11.69 and a 1-year high of $16.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a $0.4184 dividend. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 279.55%.

TELUS Company Profile

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.