Cardinal Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Cardinal Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 1.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 117,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,134 shares during the quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $5,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted 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 worth $742,107,000 after acquiring an additional 4,661,300 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 3.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,200,273 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,619,000 after buying an additional 496,949 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of BCE by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,895,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $522,794,000 after acquiring an additional 90,699 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in BCE by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 11,811,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $519,110,000 after acquiring an additional 76,349 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its position in BCE by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 8,123,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $363,516,000 after acquiring an additional 300,829 shares in the last quarter. 42.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BCE Stock Performance

NYSE BCE traded down $0.21 on Friday, hitting $40.78. 2,786,430 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,292,710. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.62. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of $39.88 and a 52-week high of $48.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The company has a market capitalization of $37.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 0.60.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.55 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 9.68%. Equities analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.16%. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 154.50%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on BCE shares. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 1st. National Bank Financial raised BCE from a “sector perform overweight” rating to an “outperform overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on shares of BCE from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BCE in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, TheStreet cut shares of BCE from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.84.

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.