BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$37.30.

Several research analysts have recently commented on BCE shares. TD Securities upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Desjardins dropped their price objective on BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, TD upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$37.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd.

BCE Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of BCE opened at C$30.40 on Tuesday. BCE has a 1 year low of C$29.66 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of C$32.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$33.66. The firm has a market cap of C$28.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.29.

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

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be issued a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 25.85%.

Insider Activity at BCE

In related news, Director Louis Vachon purchased 15,000 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$33.39 per share, for a total transaction of C$500,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 75,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$2,504,250. This represents a 25.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.25, for a total transaction of C$116,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$123,424. The trade was a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,255 shares of company stock valued at $376,464. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.