Toronto Dominion Bank Has $273.55 Million Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,450,810 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 905,857 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank owned approximately 0.93% of BCE worth $273,553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BCE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BCE by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $500,376,000 after purchasing an additional 80,879 shares during the period. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in BCE by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in BCE by 4.1% in 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 buying an additional 435,681 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in shares of BCE by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,678,000 after buying an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings 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 worth $178,677,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061,488 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $35.15 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The company has a market cap of $32.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.13 and a 12-month high of $41.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.77.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 8.39%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.729 per share. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 204.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised 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 target price on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.67.

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.