BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Purchased by Advocate Group LLC

Advocate Group LLC increased its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,429 shares during the quarter. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $4,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BCE. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in BCE by 53.5% in the first quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 13,375,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $742,107,000 after acquiring an additional 4,661,300 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in BCE by 400.8% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,570,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $136,294,000 after acquiring an additional 2,857,340 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BCE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $117,492,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of BCE by 20.8% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 11,007,473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $423,202,000 after buying an additional 1,893,418 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of BCE by 83.6% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,418,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,768,000 after buying an additional 1,101,200 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of BCE traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $33.98. 3,526,784 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,976,317. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.65. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $33.54 and a 12-month high of $48.38. The company has a market cap of $31.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. Research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.742 dividend. This is a boost from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 175.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Barclays cut their price objective on BCE from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 12th. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

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 three segments: Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media. The Bell Wireless segment offers integrated digital wireless voice and data communication products and services, as well as consumer electronics products.