Analysts Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) PT at C$36.41

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$36.41.

BCE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Desjardins increased their price target on BCE from C$41.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from C$35.00 to C$47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th.

BCE Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$31.44 on Friday. BCE has a 1-year low of C$28.73 and a 1-year high of C$36.59. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$32.34 and a 200 day moving average price of C$32.58. The stock has a market capitalization of C$29.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

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

BCE Dividend Announcement

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

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.