Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 603,507 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,686 shares during the period. BCE makes up approximately 1.7% of Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. owned about 0.07% of BCE worth $23,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in BCE by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 835,660 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,903,000 after buying an additional 213,500 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of BCE by 10.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of BCE by 83.7% during the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 8,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,965 shares in the last quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its stake in shares of BCE by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 124,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,928,000 after purchasing an additional 7,690 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its stake in shares of BCE by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 13,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 2,841 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Securities lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of BCE traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $32.80. The company had a trading volume of 667,590 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,545,493. BCE Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.82 and a fifty-two week high of $48.38. The stock has a market cap of $29.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.66.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.742 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.05%. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 174.56%.

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.