National Bankshares Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price objective upped by research analysts at National Bankshares from C$38.00 to C$39.00 in a research report issued on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. National Bankshares’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.17% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Desjardins lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on BCE from C$40.25 to C$39.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from C$35.00 to C$47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Barclays upgraded BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$37.85.

BCE Stock Down 1.6%

BCE stock traded down C$0.57 during trading on Friday, reaching C$34.46. 3,622,131 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,745,172. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$33.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$33.06. BCE has a 12 month low of C$28.73 and a 12 month high of C$36.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. The company has a market capitalization of C$31.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.47.

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

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.