Virtu Financial LLC Grows Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Virtu Financial LLC boosted its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 3.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,584 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,541 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $1,540,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BCE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BCE by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $500,376,000 after purchasing an additional 80,879 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew 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 valued at $441,217,000 after buying an additional 435,681 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,678,000 after buying an additional 287,261 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of BCE by 23.8% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $178,677,000 after buying an additional 1,061,488 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BCE has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Cibc World Mkts raised BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BCE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

BCE Trading Up 0.4 %

BCE stock opened at $34.51 on Wednesday. BCE Inc. has a twelve month low of $31.13 and a twelve month high of $41.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 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. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.81.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.729 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.45%. BCE’s payout ratio is 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.