BCE (TSE:BCE) Sets New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered their price target on the stock from C$39.00 to C$38.00. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce currently has an outperformer rating on the stock. BCE traded as low as C$27.75 and last traded at C$28.03, with a volume of 5222951 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$28.15.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BCE. TD Securities upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Desjardins decreased their price objective on BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$37.38.

Insider Activity at BCE

In other news, Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of BCE stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their position. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Up 0.6%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. The firm has a market cap of C$26.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.21, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$31.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$32.22.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%.The firm had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.96%.

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.