Park Place Capital Corp Has $371,000 Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Park Place Capital Corp cut its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,994 shares during the period. Park Place Capital Corp’s holdings in BCE were worth $371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of BCE in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. ESL Trust Services LLC bought a new position in shares of BCE in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its stake in shares of BCE by 3,480.0% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,074 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. increased its stake in shares of BCE by 60.0% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BCE in the 2nd quarter valued at $76,000. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BCE shares. National Bank Financial lowered BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.67.

BCE Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at $33.52 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.75. BCE Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.13 and a twelve month high of $41.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58. 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 (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 8.39%. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.729 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.70%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.86%.

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.