BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$37.50.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BCE shares. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. TD Securities upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Desjardins set a C$43.50 price objective on shares of BCE and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price objective on BCE and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$30.62 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$32.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$33.62. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.55 billion, a PE ratio of 4.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.29. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$29.66 and a fifty-two week high of C$36.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.66.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 EPS for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.07% and a return on equity of 29.69%. The company had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th were given a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.7%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 25.85%.

Insider Transactions at BCE

In other BCE news, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.25, for a total value of C$116,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 3,712 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$123,424. The trade was a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Sean Cohan sold 3,645 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.48, for a total value of C$122,034.60. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,255 shares of company stock worth $376,464. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About BCE

Bell Media is Canada’s leading media and entertainment company with a portfolio of assets in premium video, audio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media. This includes Canada’s most-watched television network, CTV; the largest Canadian-owned video streamer, Crave, with a premium add-on to include STARZ; a powerful suite of specialty channels; the most-trusted news brand, CTV News; Canada’s cross-platform sports leaders, TSN and RDS; leading out-of-home advertising network, Astral; Québec’s fast-growing conventional French-language network, Noovo; the country’s leading radio and podcast app, iHeartRadio Canada; and a range of award-winning original productions, brands, and services.