BCE (TSE:BCE) Share Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE)’s share price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$33.52 and traded as high as C$33.69. BCE shares last traded at C$33.50, with a volume of 6,197,743 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BCE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays raised BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. National Bank Financial upped their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Scotiabank upped their price target on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$37.78.

BCE Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$34.20 and a 200-day moving average of C$33.52. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.87, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 31.99% and a net margin of 26.40%.The firm had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th were given a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. BCE’s dividend 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.