BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of C$37.12

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$37.12.

BCE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. National Bank Financial reduced their target price on BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Desjardins decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price target on shares of BCE and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th.

BCE Stock Down 1.6%

BCE opened at C$28.63 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE has a 12 month low of C$26.66 and a 12 month high of C$36.25. The stock has a market capitalization of C$26.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$30.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$31.70.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.1%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 25.96%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 acquisition, the director owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This represents a 11.11% increase in their position. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.