BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Stake Lifted by Envestnet Asset Management Inc.

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 11.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 966,214 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 100,122 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned 0.10% of BCE worth $22,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in BCE by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 26,292,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $609,465,000 after buying an additional 2,322,474 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in BCE by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 19,945,799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $462,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,624,953 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of BCE by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 18,551,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $429,796,000 after buying an additional 1,814,111 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BCE by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,878,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $368,073,000 after buying an additional 411,911 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank increased its position in shares of BCE by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,569,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $244,692,000 after purchasing an additional 2,706,839 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of BCE in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.67.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at $24.09 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $22.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.72. BCE, Inc. has a 12-month low of $20.28 and a 12-month high of $36.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.63, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.04. BCE had a net margin of 1.82% and a return on equity of 19.22%. The firm had revenue of $4.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 5.65%. BCE’s payout ratio is 488.46%.

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.