Concord Wealth Partners Purchases New Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Posted by on Apr 15th, 2023

Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE – Get Rating) (TSE:BCE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $34,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in BCE by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,217 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $234,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 10.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 555,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,786,000 after acquiring an additional 50,975 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of BCE by 0.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 170,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,479,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 30.1% in the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 117,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,528,000 after acquiring an additional 27,239 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in BCE by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 36,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,001,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on BCE. CIBC raised their price objective on shares of BCE from C$62.00 to C$64.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. TD Securities lowered their price target on BCE from C$65.00 to C$64.00 in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Scotiabank downgraded BCE from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on BCE from C$66.00 to C$64.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, National Bank Financial cut BCE from an “outperform market weight” rating to a “sector perform market weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.53.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at $47.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 0.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.19. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $39.88 and a 12-month high of $59.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49.

BCE (NYSE:BCE – Get Rating) (TSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.68 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 16.03% and a net margin of 11.85%. On average, equities analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.38 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a $0.713 dividend. This represents a $2.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 121.65%.

About BCE

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BCE, Inc is a telecommunications and media company, which engages in the provision of communication services to residential, business, and wholesale customers. It operates through the following segments: Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media. The Bell Wireless segment covers integrated digital wireless voice and data communications products and services to residential and business customers.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for BCE (NYSE:BCE)

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