Invesco Ltd. Increases Position in BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 10.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,664,421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 258,861 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in BCE were worth $61,175,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in BCE by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 10,569,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $244,692,000 after purchasing an additional 2,706,839 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in BCE by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 18,551,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $429,796,000 after purchasing an additional 1,814,111 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in BCE by 37.7% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,388,557 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $101,727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,079 shares during the period. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. lifted its position in BCE by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 4,634,549 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $107,373,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047,062 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in BCE by 13.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,844,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,133,000 after purchasing an additional 815,614 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BCE Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of BCE stock opened at $25.60 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.85. The company has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.62. BCE, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.28 and a fifty-two week high of $36.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.61.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.06). BCE had a return on equity of 18.89% and a net margin of 1.96%. The firm had revenue of $4.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.91 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 565.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 434.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank upgraded shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of BCE in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Desjardins upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. TD Securities restated a “hold” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, National Bankshares restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.67.

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.