Cetera Investment Advisers Lowers Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Cetera Investment Advisers lowered its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 6.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 146,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 9,694 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in BCE were worth $4,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BCE. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in BCE by 23.8% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $178,677,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061,488 shares during the period. Leo Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of BCE during the 4th quarter worth $1,183,000. &PARTNERS purchased a new position in shares of BCE in the 2nd quarter valued at about $298,000. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in BCE by 7.7% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,545,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $82,441,000 after buying an additional 182,198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Performance

NYSE BCE opened at $33.52 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. BCE Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.13 and a fifty-two week high of $41.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $34.80 and a 200-day moving average of $33.75. The stock has a market cap of $30.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.729 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.70%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 204.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. National Bank Financial downgraded BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.67.

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.