Brokerages Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) PT at C$38.05

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$38.05.

Several research firms recently weighed in on BCE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins lowered their price target on BCE from C$41.00 to C$40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th.

BCE Trading Up 0.2%

BCE stock opened at C$35.09 on Wednesday. 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$34.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$33.33. 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 company has a market capitalization of C$32.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.17, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38.

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

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 34.02%.

About BCE

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.