Bank of Nova Scotia Raises Stock Position in TELUS Corporation $TU

Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 20.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,108,090 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,571,734 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in TELUS were worth $271,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TU. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in TELUS by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 33,318,398 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $433,838,000 after purchasing an additional 955,779 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in TELUS by 112.9% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 30,300,204 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $399,352,000 after purchasing an additional 16,066,539 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in TELUS by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,470,046 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $388,415,000 after purchasing an additional 916,459 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of TELUS by 258.3% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 19,816,565 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $261,727,000 after buying an additional 14,285,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 4.5% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,687,766 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $310,129,000 after buying an additional 845,682 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on TU shares. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. TD Cowen raised shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of TELUS to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.67.

TELUS Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of TU stock opened at $10.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.97, a PEG ratio of 7.65 and a beta of 0.63. TELUS Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.95 and a 1-year high of $16.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.57.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. TELUS had a net margin of 4.54% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The business had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that TELUS Corporation will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were issued a $0.4184 dividend. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 16.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 275.00%.

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.