Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 28.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,456 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $659,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in BCE by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $500,376,000 after buying an additional 80,879 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in BCE by 18.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in BCE by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $441,217,000 after purchasing an additional 435,681 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,678,000 after purchasing an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of BCE by 23.8% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $178,677,000 after buying an additional 1,061,488 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on BCE. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Six investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $46.67.

BCE Trading Up 0.2 %

BCE stock opened at $35.10 on Tuesday. BCE Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.13 and a 1 year high of $41.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $34.53 and its 200-day moving average is $33.78. 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 company has a market cap of $32.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.38, a PEG ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 8.39%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is 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.