Virtu Financial LLC Buys Shares of 46,043 BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 46,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,565,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Leo Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of BCE in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,183,000. UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in BCE by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 862,951 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,983,000 after purchasing an additional 212,047 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in BCE by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in BCE in the 4th quarter worth approximately $338,000. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in BCE by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 24,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $948,000 after purchasing an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BCE traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $34.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,894,250 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,314,369. BCE Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $31.13 and a fifty-two week high of $42.96. The company has a market capitalization of $31.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.84.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. BCE had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 7.53%. The company had revenue of $4.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.47 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.729 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.50%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 201.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the subject of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. CIBC raised BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.33.

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.