First Trust Advisors LP Has $126.34 Million Stock Position in TELUS Corporation $TU

First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 5.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,844,098 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 486,043 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.64% of TELUS worth $126,343,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TU. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in TELUS by 3.0% during the 4th 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 increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 16,066,539 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 916,459 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of TELUS by 258.3% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 19,816,565 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $261,727,000 after acquiring an additional 14,285,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of TELUS by 4.5% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,687,766 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $310,129,000 after acquiring an additional 845,682 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on TELUS in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Friday, July 17th. TD Securities upgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Scotiabank lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays set a $12.00 price objective on shares of TELUS and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.67.

TELUS Stock Performance

TU stock opened at $10.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.65 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.57. TELUS Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.95 and a 1-year high of $16.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 4.54%.The company had revenue of $3.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.74 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were issued a dividend of $0.4184 per share. 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 is presently 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.