BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Bought by Lincluden Management Ltd.

Lincluden Management Ltd. lifted its position in BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE - Free Report) TSE: BCE by 17.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,897,084 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 281,128 shares during the quarter. BCE accounts for approximately 5.5% of Lincluden Management Ltd.'s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest position. Lincluden Management Ltd. owned 0.21% of BCE worth $43,545,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in BCE during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. WealthCollab LLC bought a new stake in shares of BCE in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. GeoWealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BCE in the 4th quarter worth $60,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in shares of BCE by 67.1% in the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 3,310 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 1,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of BCE by 77.2% in the 1st quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 3,891 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 1,695 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on BCE. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of BCE in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Scotiabank raised BCE from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Cibc World Mkts lowered BCE from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, National Bank Financial raised BCE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $38.67.

BCE Stock Down 0.9%

NYSE:BCE traded down $0.23 on Friday, hitting $24.21. 3,353,760 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,016,555. The company has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a PE ratio of 93.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40. BCE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.28 and a 1 year high of $36.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.77.

BCE (NYSE:BCE - Get Free Report) TSE: BCE last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.92 billion. BCE had a net margin of 1.82% and a return on equity of 19.22%. The company's revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a yield of 5.65%. BCE's payout ratio is 488.46%.

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.