BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Stock Position Decreased by Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 6.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,273 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BCE. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in BCE by 23.8% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $178,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061,488 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of BCE by 116.0% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 56,099 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,816,000 after buying an additional 30,125 shares during the period. &PARTNERS acquired a new stake in shares of BCE in the second quarter worth $298,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 7.7% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,545,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,441,000 after buying an additional 182,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new position in BCE during the second quarter valued at $1,064,000. 41.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BCE shares. Cibc World Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. National Bank Financial lowered shares of BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of BCE from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.33.

BCE Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $32.79 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.71. BCE Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.13 and a 52 week high of $41.77. The stock has a market cap of $29.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.65.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.729 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.89%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 204.86%.

BCE Company 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.