BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Gets Price Target Trim from Scotiabank

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target cut by Scotiabank from C$40.00 to C$36.50 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,BayStreet reports. They currently have a sector outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on BCE. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 10th. TD Securities raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Desjardins decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. National Bank Financial lowered their price target on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set an “outperformer” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.12.

BCE Trading Up 3.6%

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$29.10 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$27.14 billion, a PE ratio of 4.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. BCE has a 1-year low of C$26.66 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The business has a 50-day moving average of C$30.60 and a 200 day moving average of C$31.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th were paid a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.0%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.96%.

Insider Transactions at BCE

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon purchased 10,000 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.