Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of TELUS Call Options (NYSE:TU)

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 2,125 call options on the company. This is an increase of 415% compared to the average daily volume of 413 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TU. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in TELUS in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 60.4% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 954 shares during the period. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $71,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Stock Down 0.6 %

TU traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.87. 1,124,164 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,269,827. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $25.00 billion, a PE ratio of 43.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.74. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.19. TELUS has a one year low of $14.63 and a one year high of $19.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 3.87% and a return on equity of 8.50%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.284 per share. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 294.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.33.

About TELUS

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.