BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price Target Raised at TD

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target upped by TD from C$40.00 to C$44.00 in a report issued on Thursday, BayStreet reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. TD‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 58.27% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. TD Securities raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 target price on shares of BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$32.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on BCE from C$40.00 to C$36.50 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$37.42.

BCE Trading Down 1.0%

BCE traded down C$0.29 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching C$27.80. 1,963,189 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,333,367. The stock has a market capitalization of C$25.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.12, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. BCE has a one year low of C$26.66 and a one year high of C$36.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$30.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$32.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.73.

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 company had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%. As a group, analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BCE

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. The trade was a 11.11% increase in their position. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by 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.