Bank of New York Mellon Corp Decreases Stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its holdings in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 4.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 134,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,151 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in BCE were worth $4,339,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BCE. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 171.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,284,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $168,736,000 after purchasing an additional 2,708,625 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in BCE during the fourth quarter worth $97,874,000. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in BCE by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in BCE in the 4th quarter valued at $85,840,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of BCE by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,351,436 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $132,599,000 after acquiring an additional 1,033,134 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

BCE Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of BCE opened at $35.39 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $34.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.90. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.13 and a 12-month high of $41.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market cap of $32.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The business had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.729 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.24%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.86%.

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.