BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$38.05.

A number of brokerages have commented on BCE. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of 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. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. National Bank Financial lifted their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on BCE from C$38.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Desjardins decreased their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th.

BCE Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of BCE opened at C$35.88 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of C$33.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38. BCE has a 1 year low of C$28.73 and a 1 year high of C$36.42. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$34.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$33.32.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 31.99%. As a group, equities analysts expect that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.9%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 34.02%.

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.