BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Shares Sold by Jennison Associates LLC

Jennison Associates LLC lessened its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 329,765 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,958 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $12,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new stake in BCE in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 120,000.0% in the third 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 during the last quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Finally, Tucker Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BCE by 35.7% during the third quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 2,413 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BCE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Argus cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective (down previously from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at $32.89 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $34.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.70. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.82 and a 12-month high of $48.38. 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 stock has a market cap of $30.00 billion, a PE ratio of 19.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.56.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during 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, research analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.742 dividend. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.03%. This is a boost from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 174.56%.

About BCE

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.