Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Has $5.79 Million Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 249,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,746 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in BCE were worth $5,787,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in BCE by 623.9% during the 4th quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 9,398,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $217,573,000 after acquiring an additional 8,100,000 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of BCE in the fourth quarter worth about $87,643,000. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in shares of BCE by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 19,945,799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $462,262,000 after purchasing an additional 3,624,953 shares during the period. FIL Ltd lifted its position in shares of BCE by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 26,292,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,322,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in BCE by 95.5% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,586,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $106,216,000 after purchasing an additional 2,240,473 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on BCE shares. Bank of America lowered BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. National Bankshares restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $22.70 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 189.17, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.63. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $20.28 and a one year high of $36.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.92 billion. BCE had a net margin of 0.99% and a return on equity of 17.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

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.