Sanctuary Advisors LLC Takes $1.91 Million Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 58,560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,909,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in BCE by 23.8% during the 2nd 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 bought a new position in shares of BCE in the 4th quarter worth $1,183,000. &PARTNERS acquired a new stake in shares of BCE during the second quarter worth $298,000. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in BCE by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in BCE by 7.7% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,545,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,441,000 after buying an additional 182,198 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

BCE Price Performance

Shares of BCE opened at $33.52 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.75. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of $31.13 and a 52-week high of $41.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.58 billion, a PE ratio of 23.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 0.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $0.729 per share. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.86%.

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.