BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Short Interest Update

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,610,000 shares, an increase of 25.8% from the March 31st total of 15,590,000 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,730,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BCE

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of BCE in the first quarter worth approximately $383,000. Claret Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of BCE by 41.1% in the first quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp now owns 125,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,280,000 after buying an additional 36,666 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of BCE by 63.6% in the first quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 70,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,396,000 after buying an additional 27,400 shares in the last quarter. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BCE by 24.3% in the first quarter. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $208,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of BCE by 8.3% in the first quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 20,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $701,000 after buying an additional 1,575 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on BCE shares. CIBC raised shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. TD Securities downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

BCE Trading Up 0.3 %

BCE stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $32.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,061,216 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,550,678. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $29.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $34.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.62. BCE has a 12 month low of $31.82 and a 12 month high of $48.38.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 17.13%. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that BCE will post 2.25 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.742 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $2.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.04%. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 174.56%.

About BCE

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.