First County Bank CT Has $989,000 Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

First County Bank CT lessened its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 30,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,168 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT’s holdings in BCE were worth $989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in BCE by 23.8% in 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. Leo Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of BCE during the fourth quarter worth about $1,183,000. &PARTNERS bought a new position in shares of BCE during the second quarter worth about $298,000. FIL Ltd raised its position in BCE by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new stake in BCE in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,064,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Trading Down 0.2 %

BCE stock opened at $34.83 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.13 and a 52 week high of $41.77.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 company posted $0.59 EPS. Analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.37%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BCE shares. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.67.

BCE 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.