Westerkirk Capital Inc. Takes $1.25 Million Position in TELUS Corporation $TU

Westerkirk Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 77,569 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,246,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in TELUS by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,185,917 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $375,585,000 after acquiring an additional 384,510 shares during the period. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 9.2% during the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 22,899,251 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $328,588,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938,521 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 1.6% during the second quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 18,842,084 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $302,519,000 after purchasing an additional 288,532 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in TELUS by 196.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,836,479 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $169,735,000 after buying an additional 7,840,264 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its stake in TELUS by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 11,422,033 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $185,690,000 after buying an additional 643,192 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $13.06 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $14.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.67. TELUS Corporation has a 12-month low of $12.80 and a 12-month high of $16.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $20.04 billion, a PE ratio of 23.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 0.66.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.02). TELUS had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 5.71%.The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a $0.4184 dividend. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 220.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on TU shares. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of TELUS from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Natl Bk Canada upgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. National Bank Financial upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (down from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.17.

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.