Mackenzie Financial Corp Boosts Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,666,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 122,913 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in BCE were worth $105,036,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BCE. JCIC Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in BCE by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in BCE by 0.6% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 48,401 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,847,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in BCE by 1.9% in the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 15,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company lifted its stake in BCE by 2.3% in the third quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 13,629 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $520,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in BCE by 0.9% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 32,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,370,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Argus downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. TD Securities downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective (down previously from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at $32.41 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.17, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.56. BCE Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.00 and a 12 month 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.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 17.13%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current 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. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.16%. This is a boost from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 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.