BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Position Increased by LPL Financial LLC

LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,191,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,655 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $38,559,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BCE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 80,879 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 435,681 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,061,488 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at $35.40 on Monday. BCE Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.13 and a 1 year high of $41.77. The stock has a market cap of $32.29 billion, a PE ratio of 24.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s fifty day moving average is $34.18 and its 200-day moving average is $33.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.65.

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

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.729 dividend. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is 204.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

About BCE

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.