BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Bought by Intact Investment Management Inc.

Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 34.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 835,660 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 213,500 shares during the period. BCE makes up approximately 1.3% of Intact Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Intact Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.09% of BCE worth $32,903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BCE. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of BCE by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,928,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 109,866 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of BCE by 57.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,318,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,908,000 after purchasing an additional 843,626 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its position in shares of BCE by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 29,477 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,161,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the period. Claret Asset Management Corp boosted its position in BCE by 54.2% in the 3rd quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp now owns 86,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,307,000 after buying an additional 30,444 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in BCE in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $603,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. CIBC raised shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Securities lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Argus lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

BCE Stock Performance

NYSE BCE traded down $0.27 during trading on Friday, reaching $32.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,477,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,492,673. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $29.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.56. BCE Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.82 and a twelve month high of $48.38. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $34.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.67.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 17.13%. As a group, analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.742 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.10%. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 174.56%.

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.