BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Acquired by Clearbridge Investments LLC

Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 18.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,582,654 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 402,869 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $87,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BCE. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 171.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,284,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $168,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,708,625 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BCE in the fourth quarter worth $97,874,000. FIL Ltd increased its position in BCE by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd. increased its position in BCE by 4,046.0% in the fourth quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 1,075,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,363,000 after buying an additional 1,049,810 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in BCE by 44.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,351,436 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $132,599,000 after buying an additional 1,033,134 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. CIBC raised BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE traded up $0.27 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $33.16. 1,421,162 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,313,977. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.51 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.57. BCE Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.13 and a twelve month high of $44.34. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.12.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.47 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. Analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.738 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.90%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 201.39%.

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 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.