PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. reduced its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 11.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,061 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,621 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $4,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,928,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 109,866 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in BCE by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 862,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,983,000 after purchasing an additional 212,047 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in BCE by 57.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,318,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,908,000 after purchasing an additional 843,626 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in BCE by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 24,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 981 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Argus cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. CIBC upgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price 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. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.25.

BCE Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of BCE opened at $32.50 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 0.57. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $31.82 and a one year high of $46.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.61. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $33.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.41.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.47 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. Sell-side analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.738 per share. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 202.08%.

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.