BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Stock Has Average Target Price of C$37.69

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$37.46.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotia raised their price target on BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th.

Insider Activity at BCE

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This represents a 11.11% increase in their position. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BCE Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$28.17 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of C$26.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.18, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a 50-day moving average price of C$31.49 and a 200-day moving average price of C$32.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. BCE has a twelve month low of C$28.14 and a twelve month high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 EPS for the quarter. The company 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.96%.

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.