M&T Bank Corp Sells 1,781 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

M&T Bank Corp reduced its stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 4.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 35,943 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 1,781 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in TELUS were worth $603,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in TELUS during the second quarter worth about $141,000. Gold Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 0.7% in the second quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc raised its position in shares of TELUS by 14.1% in the second quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 378,086 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $5,721,000 after purchasing an additional 46,773 shares during the period. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 85,648 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $1,297,000 after buying an additional 10,141 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Trading Down 2.3 %

TELUS stock opened at $14.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.00 and a fifty-two week high of $18.55. The stock has a market cap of $21.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $15.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.94.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.46%. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 253.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Company 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.