BCE, Inc. $BCE Shares Sold by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its position in BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 24.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,980,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 655,646 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in BCE were worth $46,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of BCE by 99.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,006,153 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $310,682,000 after purchasing an additional 6,981,281 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BCE in the second quarter valued at $81,315,000. Cullen Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in BCE by 77.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $149,459,000 after buying an additional 2,792,485 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of BCE by 16,698.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,740,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,721,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 24.8% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,006,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $133,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,192,504 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays decreased their target price on BCE from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, December 28th. Finally, Barrington Research upgraded shares of BCE from an “underperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.00.

BCE Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE BCE opened at $25.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.58. BCE, Inc. has a one year low of $20.28 and a one year high of $26.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $24.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.05. The firm has a market cap of $23.94 billion, a PE ratio of 5.23 and a beta of 0.60.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.04. BCE had a return on equity of 16.30% and a net margin of 26.14%.The firm had revenue of $4.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. Analysts expect that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.8%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.46%.

BCE Profile

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.