Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Grows Stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE)

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. raised its stake in BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 29.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,634,549 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,047,062 shares during the period. BCE comprises approximately 2.1% of Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $107,373,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BCE. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of BCE by 623.9% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 9,398,336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $217,573,000 after acquiring an additional 8,100,000 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BCE in the fourth quarter worth $87,643,000. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its stake in shares of BCE by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 19,945,799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $462,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,624,953 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its stake in shares of BCE by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 26,292,783 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,465,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of BCE by 95.5% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,586,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $106,216,000 after acquiring an additional 2,240,473 shares during the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on BCE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $39.00 price objective on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. National Bankshares reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Bank of America cut BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

BCE Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NYSE:BCE opened at $22.70 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 189.17, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.62. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.24. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of $20.28 and a 52-week high of $36.17.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.92 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.89% and a net margin of 0.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. Analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

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.