Verity & Verity LLC Buys 11,006 Shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Verity & Verity LLC boosted its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 405,019 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,006 shares during the quarter. BCE accounts for approximately 1.5% of Verity & Verity LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Verity & Verity LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $13,110,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $500,376,000 after purchasing an additional 80,879 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its stake in shares of BCE by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after acquiring an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 12.0% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,450,810 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $273,553,000 after purchasing an additional 905,857 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in BCE by 23.8% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in BCE by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,068,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $163,932,000 after purchasing an additional 21,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.67.

BCE Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at $34.84 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $34.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.62. BCE Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.13 and a 1-year high of $41.77. The company has a market cap of $31.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.729 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.37%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.