Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. Raises Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. increased its position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 6.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,393 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 612 shares during the period. Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 84.1% during the fourth quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 239.9% during the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 707 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in shares of BCE during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in BCE by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in BCE by 35.7% during the third quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.25.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $31.47. The stock had a trading volume of 1,394,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,343,355. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $31.13 and a one year high of $45.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.85. The firm has a market cap of $28.71 billion, a PE ratio of 21.99, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 0.57.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. The business had revenue of $4.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.47 billion. On average, analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.738 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.38%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 201.39%.

BCE 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.