M&T Bank Corp Has $520,000 Stock Position in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

M&T Bank Corp reduced its holdings in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 35.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 22,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 12,378 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in BCE were worth $520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in BCE by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 18,873,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $656,421,000 after acquiring an additional 864,472 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position 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 worth $127,282,000 after buying an additional 738,656 shares during the period. 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 buying an additional 1,166,800 shares during the period. 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 buying an additional 165,881 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of BCE by 78.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 120,462 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,192,000 after buying an additional 52,966 shares during the period. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $39.00 price objective on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of BCE in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “underweight” rating for the company. Finally, National Bankshares reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned 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.com, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

BCE Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $24.36 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.45 billion, a PE ratio of 202.97, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.57. BCE Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.87 and a 12-month high of $36.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.03. BCE had a net margin of 0.99% and a return on equity of 17.89%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.6965 dividend. This represents a $2.79 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2,291.67%.

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.