John G Ullman & Associates Inc. Buys 108,184 Shares of BCE, Inc. $BCE

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 86.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 233,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 108,184 shares during the period. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $5,558,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of BCE by 74.9% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 624,092 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,598,000 after buying an additional 267,313 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 16,698.2% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,740,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,721,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730,605 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 3.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,319,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $404,701,000 after purchasing an additional 608,264 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 77.6% during the third quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $149,459,000 after purchasing an additional 2,792,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,848,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $91,794,000 after purchasing an additional 727,860 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on BCE. Barrington Research raised BCE from an “underperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $26.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. TD Securities lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on BCE from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.67.

BCE Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $23.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $24.68 and a 200-day moving average of $24.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. BCE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $21.09 and a 12 month high of $26.52.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.38 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 25.66%.BCE’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.69 earnings per share. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that BCE, Inc. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.4%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.02%.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.