BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 43,260,000 shares, a decline of 7.2% from the September 15th total of 46,600,000 shares. Approximately 4.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,970,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 22.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of BCE by 23.8% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,520,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $178,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061,488 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its stake in BCE by 116.0% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 56,099 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after buying an additional 30,125 shares in the last quarter. &PARTNERS acquired a new position in shares of BCE in the second quarter valued at approximately $298,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of BCE by 7.7% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,545,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $82,441,000 after acquiring an additional 182,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BCE during the second quarter worth $1,064,000. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at $33.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.25, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 0.58. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.66 and a 200-day moving average of $33.71. BCE has a 1 year low of $31.13 and a 1 year high of $41.77.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. BCE had a net margin of 8.39% and a return on equity of 17.10%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BCE will post 2.21 EPS for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.729 per share. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 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.