BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Stock Has Average Target Price of C$37.12 According to Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$37.12.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group raised BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$32.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. National Bank Financial cut their target price on BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Desjardins reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. TD Securities raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, TD lifted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 15th.

BCE Stock Performance

TSE BCE opened at C$28.09 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$30.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$32.58. The company has a market cap of C$26.19 billion, a PE ratio of 4.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. BCE has a 1-year low of C$26.66 and a 1-year high of C$36.25.

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

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BCE

In related news, Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$3,063,000. The trade was a 11.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

BCE Company Profile

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.