BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Purchased by First National Trust Co

First National Trust Co raised its stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,475 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in BCE were worth $420,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in BCE by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $500,376,000 after buying an additional 80,879 shares during the period. FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of BCE by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of BCE by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $441,217,000 after purchasing an additional 435,681 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its position in shares of BCE by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,678,000 after purchasing an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of BCE by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $178,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061,488 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.33.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE opened at $35.96 on Friday. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $31.13 and a one year high of $41.77. The company has a 50-day moving average of $33.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.99. The stock has a market cap of $32.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.97, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.729 dividend. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.11%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is 200.69%.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.