BCE, Inc. $BCE Shares Bought by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 2,674,985.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,819,058 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,818,990 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. owned about 0.20% of BCE worth $43,424,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BCE. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 74.9% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 624,092 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,598,000 after buying an additional 267,313 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in BCE by 16,698.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,740,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,721,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730,605 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in BCE by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,319,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $404,701,000 after acquiring an additional 608,264 shares during the period. Cullen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in BCE by 77.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,389,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $149,459,000 after acquiring an additional 2,792,485 shares during the period. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in BCE by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,848,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $91,794,000 after acquiring an additional 727,860 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on BCE. Weiss Ratings raised shares of BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Barrington Research raised shares of BCE from an “underperform” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. TD Securities downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.67.

BCE Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of BCE opened at $23.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.84 and a beta of 0.48. BCE, Inc. has a one year low of $21.09 and a one year high of $26.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $24.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.31.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.38 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 25.66%.BCE’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that BCE, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.4%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.02%.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.