BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$36.41.

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised 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 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Cibc Captl Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. TD Securities reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upped 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.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.30 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of C$32.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$32.59. The company has a market cap of C$30.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.85, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.51. 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 has a 52 week low of C$28.73 and a 52 week high of C$36.59.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported C$0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 1.39% and a net margin of 1.10%.The business had revenue of C$6.05 billion during the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 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.