Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Purchases 53,490 Shares of BCE, Inc. $BCE

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its position in BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) by 90.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 112,315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 53,490 shares during the quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in BCE were worth $2,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BCE by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of BCE by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 17,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Binnacle Investments Inc increased its stake in shares of BCE by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. Binnacle Investments Inc now owns 4,164 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd lifted its position in BCE by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 28,692 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after acquiring an additional 926 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in BCE by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 33,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $795,000 after acquiring an additional 944 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BCE in a report on Friday, May 29th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Securities upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.67.

BCE Stock Up 0.3%

BCE stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $21.38. The stock had a trading volume of 3,005,744 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,709,718. The company has a market capitalization of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.39. BCE, Inc. has a one year low of $20.87 and a one year high of $26.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.38 billion. BCE had a net margin of 25.66% and a return on equity of 13.87%. BCE’s revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. BCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.790-1.910 EPS. On average, analysts expect that BCE, Inc. will post 1.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.81%.

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.