BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Bought by Natixis Advisors L.P.

Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 24.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 313,355 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 61,122 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P.’s holdings in BCE were worth $12,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BCE. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in BCE by 239.9% in the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 707 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of BCE in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 120,000.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in BCE by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in BCE by 147.7% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 1,040 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.00.

BCE Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $33.46 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.52 billion, a PE ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.56. BCE Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.82 and a twelve month high of $48.24. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.43.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released 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 company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. On average, equities analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.738 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.82%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.86%.

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.