BCE (TSE:BCE) Given New C$41.00 Price Target at Desjardins

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its target price reduced by Desjardins from C$43.50 to C$41.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. Desjardins currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 target price on shares of BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.31.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE opened at C$31.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$29.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.68, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of C$31.75 and a 200 day moving average of C$33.40. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$29.66 and a fifty-two week high of C$36.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.66.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.07% and a return on equity of 29.69%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 25.85%.

Insider Transactions at BCE

In related news, insider Sean Cohan sold 3,645 shares of BCE stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.48, for a total value of C$122,034.60. Also, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider directly owned 3,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$123,424. This trade represents a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. In the last quarter, insiders sold 11,255 shares of company stock valued at $376,464. Company 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.