BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price Crosses Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$33.33 and traded as high as C$36.21. BCE shares last traded at C$36.11, with a volume of 3,990,760 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on BCE. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins lowered their target price on BCE from C$41.00 to C$40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price objective 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, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$38.05.

BCE Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$33.07 billion, a PE ratio of 5.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.58. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$34.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$33.35.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 31.99%. As a group, equities analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. BCE’s payout ratio is 34.02%.

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.