Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. Sells 1,358,075 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lowered its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 61.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 857,099 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 1,358,075 shares during the quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $14,395,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 954 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $123,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased 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 valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Price Performance

TU opened at $15.21 on Friday. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $14.63 and a 12-month high of $19.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.07. The company has a market capitalization of $22.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.75.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.81%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 244.69%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on TU shares. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com downgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

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.