LGT Capital Partners LTD. Has $29.97 Million Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

LGT Capital Partners LTD. raised its position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 30.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 757,505 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 176,375 shares during the period. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in BCE were worth $29,974,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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. TD Securities lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of BCE from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Argus cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.00.

BCE Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE BCE opened at $33.98 on Friday. 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 52 week low of $33.54 and a 52 week high of $48.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $37.52 and a 200-day moving average of $38.61.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its 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. BCE had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 17.13%. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.36 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.742 dividend. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 175.15%.

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 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.