Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC Boosts Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 24,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in BCE were worth $569,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in BCE by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 18,873,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,421,000 after buying an additional 864,472 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 25.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,657,533 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $127,282,000 after acquiring an additional 738,656 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of BCE by 48.7% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,563,534 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $123,877,000 after acquiring an additional 1,166,800 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of BCE by 130.1% during the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 293,427 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,200,000 after acquiring an additional 165,881 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of BCE by 78.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 120,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after acquiring an additional 52,966 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BCE shares. National Bank Financial lowered BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of BCE in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “underweight” rating for the company. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of BCE from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America downgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.00.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE stock opened at $23.16 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.60. BCE Inc. has a 12 month low of $21.87 and a 12 month high of $41.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $25.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.63. The company has a market cap of $21.12 billion, a PE ratio of 330.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.56.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.737 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.73. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.73%. BCE’s payout ratio is 4,028.57%.

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.