BNP Paribas Financial Markets Grows Stock Position in TELUS Corporation $TU

BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 479.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,176,400 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 973,375 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in TELUS were worth $15,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 46,099 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $739,000 after buying an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 31,454 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $415,000 after buying an additional 869 shares during the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,670 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 40,463 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $638,000 after buying an additional 1,066 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Equitable Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Equitable Holdings Inc. now owns 11,905 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $188,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. TD Securities upgraded TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered TELUS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Scotiabank cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.33.

TELUS Price Performance

NYSE:TU opened at $12.33 on Friday. TELUS Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.69 and a 52 week high of $16.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.40 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.10 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $12.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.08.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 4.54%.The firm had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a $0.4184 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.6%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 279.55%.

TELUS 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.