BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$36.41.

A number of analysts have weighed in on BCE shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$35.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Desjardins raised their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th.

BCE Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$31.44 on Friday. BCE has a twelve month low of C$28.73 and a twelve month high of C$36.59. The firm has a market cap of C$29.32 billion, a PE ratio of 4.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$32.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$32.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported C$0.79 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 1.10% and a return on equity of 1.39%. The firm had revenue of C$6.05 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.09%.

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.