BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price objective decreased by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from C$39.00 to C$38.00 in a research note released on Thursday,BayStreet reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce currently has an outperformer rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on BCE. Desjardins reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. National Bank Financial dropped their price objective on BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Scotiabank cut their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Scotia increased their target price on BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$37.38.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE opened at C$26.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.73. The company has a market cap of C$24.99 billion, a PE ratio of 3.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$31.22 and a 200-day moving average of C$32.18. BCE has a 52-week low of C$26.66 and a 52-week high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BCE

In related news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This represents a 11.11% increase in their position. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.