Jones Financial Companies Lllp Boosts Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 27.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 278,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,795 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in BCE were worth $6,453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of BCE in the third quarter worth about $208,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in BCE by 66.4% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,360,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,320,000 after acquiring an additional 543,320 shares during the last quarter. Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BCE during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $436,000. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of BCE by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 105,149 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,664,000 after acquiring an additional 3,646 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 24.6% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 262,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,124,000 after purchasing an additional 51,661 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on BCE. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $39.00 price target on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Edward Jones downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America cut BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

BCE Trading Up 1.1 %

BCE opened at $23.37 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $23.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.48. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $21.87 and a one year high of $36.94. The stock has a market cap of $21.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 194.75, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.57.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.03. BCE had a return on equity of 17.89% and a net margin of 0.99%. On average, equities analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.6965 dividend. This represents a $2.79 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2,283.33%.

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.