Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 64.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,552 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BCE. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in BCE by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 15,712,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $575,871,000 after purchasing an additional 323,998 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in BCE by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 15,198,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $580,173,000 after purchasing an additional 661,255 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in BCE by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,332,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $547,084,000 after purchasing an additional 294,626 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in BCE by 53.5% in the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 13,375,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $742,107,000 after purchasing an additional 4,661,300 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in BCE by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,909,021 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $542,932,000 after purchasing an additional 46,508 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on BCE shares. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays reduced their target price on BCE from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at $34.30 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.29 billion, a PE ratio of 20.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 0.56. BCE Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.54 and a 1 year high of $48.38.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. Equities research analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a $0.742 dividend. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.65%. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 175.15%.

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 three segments: Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media. The Bell Wireless segment offers integrated digital wireless voice and data communication products and services, as well as consumer electronics products.