K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc Boosts Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc raised its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 34.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 370,893 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 95,433 shares during the period. TELUS accounts for 1.1% of K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc’s holdings in TELUS were worth $6,612,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in TELUS by 80.8% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at $49,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in TELUS by 104.3% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,891 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the third quarter worth about $172,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on TU shares. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $26.00 price target (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of TELUS from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.72.

TELUS Price Performance

TELUS stock traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,544,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,465,781. 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. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.61 and its 200-day moving average price 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 quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 4.18%. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.17 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2793 per share. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.