BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target Raised to C$39.00

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target boosted by Royal Bank Of Canada from C$38.00 to C$39.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on BCE. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. National Bank Financial raised their target price on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of BCE from C$40.25 to C$39.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Desjardins increased their price target on shares of BCE from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$37.70.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$35.35 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16. The company has a market capitalization of C$32.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.21, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38. BCE has a 12 month low of C$28.73 and a 12 month high of C$36.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of C$34.88 and a 200-day moving average of C$33.37.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 31.99% and a net margin of 26.40%.The business had revenue of C$6.40 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.02%.

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.