Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. Has $413,000 Holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. raised its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,856 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 445 shares during the period. Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $413,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ESL Trust Services LLC acquired a new position in BCE in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its stake in BCE by 3,480.0% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,074 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in BCE by 121.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. raised its holdings in BCE by 60.0% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 1,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC lifted its stake in BCE by 321.0% in the third quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 1,268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BCE has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. National Bank Financial downgraded BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on BCE from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.33.

BCE Stock Down 0.3 %

BCE stock traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $32.58. The company had a trading volume of 180,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,186,197. The company has a market capitalization of $29.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.58. BCE Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.13 and a 52 week high of $41.77. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.729 per share. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 204.86%.

BCE Company 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.