Rempart Asset Management Inc. Lowers Stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Rempart Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 27.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 49,438 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 19,140 shares during the period. Rempart Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $669,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in TELUS by 195,100.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 58.0% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth $123,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on TU shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

TU stock traded down $0.13 on Wednesday, reaching $13.83. The company had a trading volume of 461,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,821,376. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. The company’s fifty day moving average is $14.89 and its 200 day moving average is $15.68. The company has a market cap of $20.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $18.55.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a $0.297 dividend. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 253.19%.

TELUS 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.