Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC Sells 10,918 Shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC decreased its position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 48.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 10,918 shares during the quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $460,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 366,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,485,000 after buying an additional 3,095 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in BCE by 64.3% during the fourth quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 4,266 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in BCE by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares during the period. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in BCE by 26.2% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $139,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in BCE by 55.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 62,651 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,488,000 after purchasing an additional 22,419 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BCE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price (down previously from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE stock opened at $32.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $35.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.96. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.00 and a 52-week high of $48.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.56.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.742 per share. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.16%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 174.56%.

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.