BCE (TSE:BCE) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at TD Securities

TD Securities upgraded shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the company. Scotiabank raised their price objective 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. TD upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$37.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price 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. Finally, Desjardins reduced their target price on BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of C$38.33.

BCE Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of BCE opened at C$30.37 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$33.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$33.74. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.66. BCE has a 52 week low of C$30.03 and a 52 week high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 29.69% and a net margin of 26.07%.The business had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be given a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 25.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BCE

In other BCE news, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.25, for a total transaction of C$116,375.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 3,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$123,424. The trade was a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Thierry Chaumont sold 4,110 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.59, for a total value of C$138,054.90. Insiders have sold 11,255 shares of company stock worth $376,464 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.