Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Sells 330 Shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust cut its stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 330 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in BCE were worth $205,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new position in shares of BCE during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in BCE by 120,000.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the period. JCIC Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in BCE by 26.5% in the 4th quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in BCE by 147.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in BCE by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BCE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Securities downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Argus downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, CIBC upgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:BCE traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $32.99. 696,267 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,573,520. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $34.86 and its 200-day moving average is $37.77. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.82 and a 12-month high of $48.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.742 dividend. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.00%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 174.56%.

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.