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

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$36.41.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BCE shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Cibc Captl Mkts raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from C$35.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$32.74 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$32.26 and its 200 day moving average price is C$32.59. BCE has a 12-month low of C$28.73 and a 12-month high of C$36.59. The company has a market capitalization of C$30.18 billion, a PE ratio of 4.92, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported C$0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 1.39% and a net margin of 1.10%.The business had revenue of C$6.05 billion for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s payout ratio is 43.09%.

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.