Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE - Free Report) TSE: BCE by 67.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 173,696 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 69,777 shares during the quarter. Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc.'s holdings in BCE were worth $3,991,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FIL Ltd increased its stake in BCE by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 26,292,783 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $609,465,000 after buying an additional 2,322,474 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 19,945,799 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $462,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,624,953 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $429,796,000 after acquiring an additional 1,814,111 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in BCE by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,878,904 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $368,073,000 after purchasing an additional 411,911 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in BCE by 34.4% in 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. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BCE. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $35.00 target price 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. National Bank Financial upgraded BCE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, National Bankshares reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $38.67.

BCE Stock Performance

NYSE BCE opened at $22.81 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. The stock has a market cap of $21.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 190.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.61. BCE Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.28 and a fifty-two week high of $36.17. The business has a fifty day moving average of $21.77 and a 200-day moving average of $23.05.

BCE (NYSE:BCE - Get Free Report) TSE: BCE last released 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 the consensus estimate of $5.92 billion. BCE had a net margin of 0.99% and a return on equity of 17.89%. BCE's revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 5.65%. BCE's payout ratio is 488.46%.

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.

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