Leisure Capital Management Sells 6,808 Shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Leisure Capital Management cut its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 29.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,651 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,808 shares during the period. Leisure Capital Management’s holdings in BCE were worth $656,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BCE by 34.3% during the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 835,660 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,903,000 after acquiring an additional 213,500 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in BCE by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 525,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,780,000 after purchasing an additional 48,266 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings in BCE by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 8,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,965 shares during the last quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc grew its holdings in BCE by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 124,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 7,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 13,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,841 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BCE. TD Securities lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price (down previously from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. CIBC raised shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of BCE traded down $0.27 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $32.62. The stock had a trading volume of 1,477,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,492,673. BCE Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.82 and a 52 week high of $48.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s fifty day moving average is $34.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 17.13%. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.742 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.10%. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 174.56%.

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.