Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. Buys 11,539 Shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 12.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,539 shares during the period. Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $3,970,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BCE. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new position in BCE in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in BCE by 120,000.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 26.5% during the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of BCE by 147.7% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC grew its position in BCE by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on BCE shares. Barclays dropped 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 downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Argus lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Stock Down 1.0 %

BCE stock traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $32.93. The stock had a trading volume of 716,695 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,574,040. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $34.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.77. BCE Inc. has a one year low of $31.82 and a one year high of $48.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $30.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.52, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.56.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.82 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. On average, analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.742 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.01%. BCE’s payout ratio is 174.56%.

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.