Truist Financial Corp Cuts Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Truist Financial Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 19.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 547,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 128,740 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in BCE were worth $21,568,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new stake in BCE in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of BCE by 120,000.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the period. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of BCE by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of BCE by 147.7% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of BCE by 35.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Argus lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Barclays dropped their price target on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. CIBC upgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, TD Securities cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

BCE Price Performance

NYSE:BCE opened at $32.75 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.62. The stock has a market cap of $29.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.38, a P/E/G ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.65. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $31.82 and a one year high of $48.38.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. Equities research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.742 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.06%. BCE’s payout ratio is 174.56%.

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.