Allianz Asset Management GmbH Sells 54,914 Shares of BCE, Inc. $BCE

Allianz Asset Management GmbH trimmed its holdings in BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 73.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 54,914 shares during the quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in BCE were worth $460,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BCE. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of BCE by 99.4% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,006,153 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $310,682,000 after acquiring an additional 6,981,281 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in BCE by 24.8% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,006,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $133,173,000 after purchasing an additional 1,192,504 shares during the last quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. grew its position in BCE by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 5,647,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,004,000 after purchasing an additional 445,680 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in BCE during the 2nd quarter valued at $81,315,000. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BCE by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,200,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,951,000 after buying an additional 825,280 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on BCE. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Barrington Research upgraded shares of BCE from an “underperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.00.

BCE Stock Performance

NYSE BCE opened at $25.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. BCE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.28 and a twelve month high of $26.49. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.92. The firm has a market cap of $23.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.24 and a beta of 0.60.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. BCE had a return on equity of 16.30% and a net margin of 26.14%.The company had revenue of $4.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is 25.87%.

About BCE

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.