BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Short Interest Up 25.8% in April

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JCIC Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in BCE by 26.5% in the fourth quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its holdings in shares of BCE by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 31,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 48,401 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,847,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in BCE by 1.9% during the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 15,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, L.M. Kohn & Company boosted its holdings in BCE by 2.3% in the third quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 13,629 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $520,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on BCE. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Securities lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. CIBC upgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Argus downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

BCE Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE BCE traded up $0.10 on Tuesday, reaching $32.85. 2,078,566 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,550,887. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $34.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.56. BCE has a fifty-two week low of $31.82 and a fifty-two week high of $48.38.

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

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.742 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.04%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.