Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. Purchases 755,283 Shares of BCE, Inc. $BCE

Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 6,531.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 766,847 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 755,283 shares during the quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $17,919,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BCE. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 99.4% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 14,006,153 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $310,682,000 after purchasing an additional 6,981,281 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BCE in the 2nd quarter worth about $81,315,000. Cullen Capital Management LLC raised its position in BCE by 77.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $149,459,000 after buying an additional 2,792,485 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in BCE by 288.3% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,636,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,957,508 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 16,698.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,740,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,721,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730,605 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BCE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Barrington Research upgraded shares of BCE from an “underperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a report on Monday, January 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on BCE from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

BCE Stock Up 2.4%

BCE stock opened at $26.29 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $24.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.06. The stock has a market cap of $24.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.35 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. BCE, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.28 and a twelve month high of $26.49.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. BCE had a net margin of 26.14% and a return on equity of 16.30%. The company had revenue of $4.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BCE, Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th will be issued a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.7%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.46%.

About BCE

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.