Norges Bank Makes New Investment in BCE, Inc. $BCE

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 3,848,869 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $91,811,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in BCE by 143.1% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $629,000 after acquiring an additional 15,555 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in BCE by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,955,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,584,000 after acquiring an additional 171,823 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in BCE during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in BCE by 118.2% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 4,794 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 2,597 shares during the period. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its position in BCE by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 729,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,392,000 after acquiring an additional 96,600 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BCE. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on BCE from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock 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 issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.67.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at $24.44 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.79 billion, a PE ratio of 4.97 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. BCE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $21.58 and a 52-week high of $26.52.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.38 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 13.87% and a net margin of 25.66%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that BCE, Inc. will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. BCE’s payout ratio is 26.02%.

BCE 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.