BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Acquired by CFM Wealth Partners LLC

CFM Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 15.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 803 shares during the quarter. CFM Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of BCE by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 15,933,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $643,159,000 after purchasing an additional 221,174 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in shares of BCE by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 15,198,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $580,173,000 after purchasing an additional 661,255 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BCE by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,644,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $576,710,000 after purchasing an additional 311,902 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its position in shares of BCE by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of BCE by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,217,000 after purchasing an additional 435,681 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. Barclays cut their price objective on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, CIBC upgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.25.

BCE Stock Down 1.6 %

BCE stock traded down $0.52 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $32.72. 1,866,607 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,353,647. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $33.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 0.57. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.82 and a 52-week high of $46.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.47 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.738 per share. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 202.08%.

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.