BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives C$37.85 Average Price Target from Analysts

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$38.05.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$40.25 to C$39.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. National Bank Financial boosted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins cut 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, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$35.29 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of C$33.56 and a 200 day moving average price of C$33.22. The stock has a market capitalization of C$32.91 billion, a PE ratio of 5.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.47. BCE has a 52 week low of C$28.73 and a 52 week high of C$36.59.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 34.02%.

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.