BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$38.50.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on BCE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Scotiabank raised their price target on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. National Bank Financial raised their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays raised BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$33.99 on Monday. BCE has a 1-year low of C$29.17 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$33.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$33.55. The firm has a market capitalization of C$31.70 billion, a PE ratio of 5.02, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 29.69% and a net margin of 26.07%.The firm had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts expect that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Thierry Chaumont sold 4,110 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.59, for a total transaction of C$138,054.90. Also, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.25, for a total value of C$116,375.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,712 shares in the company, valued at C$123,424. This trade represents a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders sold a total of 11,255 shares of company stock valued at $376,465 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.