BCE (TSE:BCE) Shares Pass Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$0.00 and traded as high as C$36.59. BCE shares last traded at C$36.35, with a volume of 5,350,193 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BCE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Securities upped their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays downgraded BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Down 2.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of C$31.74 billion, a PE ratio of 117.55, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of C$33.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$39.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 1,338.57%.

About BCE

BCE is both a wireless and internet service provider, offering wireless, broadband, television, and landline phone services in Canada. It is one of the big three national wireless carriers, with its roughly 10 million customers constituting about 30% of the market. It is also the ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrierthe legacy telephone provider) throughout much of the eastern half of Canada, including in the most populous Canadian provincesOntario and Quebec.