BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Purchased by Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 23.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,631 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,082 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $131,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 48.7% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,563,534 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $123,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,166,800 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in BCE by 4.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 18,873,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,421,000 after acquiring an additional 864,472 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in BCE in the fourth quarter worth $17,271,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of BCE by 25.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,657,533 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $127,282,000 after purchasing an additional 738,656 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of BCE during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,522,000. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley started coverage on BCE in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “underweight” rating for the company. Bank of America lowered BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.00.

BCE Trading Down 3.8 %

BCE stock opened at $23.45 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of $21.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 195.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.57. BCE Inc. has a 1 year low of $21.87 and a 1 year high of $36.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $23.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.82.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.03. BCE had a net margin of 0.99% and a return on equity of 17.89%. On average, research analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.6965 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.79 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.88%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2,291.67%.

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.