Louis Vachon Buys 15,000 Shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon bought 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$33.39 per share, with a total value of C$500,850.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 75,000 shares in the company, valued at C$2,504,250. This trade represents a 25.00% increase in their ownership of the stock.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock traded down C$0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching C$32.72. 4,919,192 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,713,109. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$33.90 and a 200-day moving average price of C$33.51. BCE Inc. has a 52-week low of C$29.17 and a 52-week high of C$36.25. The company has a market capitalization of C$30.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.07% and a return on equity of 29.69%. As a group, analysts anticipate 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 Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were issued a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BCE shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Desjardins decreased their target price on BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays upgraded BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.78.

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.