BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target Lowered to C$41.50 at Desjardins

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its target price cut by Desjardins from C$42.00 to C$41.50 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. TD Securities downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, National Bank Financial increased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.25.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$33.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of C$30.93 billion, a PE ratio of 4.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.34. BCE has a one year low of C$28.73 and a one year high of C$36.25. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$35.15 and its 200-day moving average price is C$33.52.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$6.40 billion for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 31.99% and a net margin of 26.40%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 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.