Karine Moses Sells 3,500 Shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.25, for a total value of C$116,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 3,712 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$123,424. This trade represents a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock.

BCE Stock Down 1.4%

BCE stock opened at C$32.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE Inc. has a 1-year low of C$29.17 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The company has a market cap of C$30.51 billion, a PE ratio of 4.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is C$33.90 and its 200 day moving average price is C$33.51.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$6.17 billion during the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 29.69% and a net margin of 26.07%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 25.85%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. Barclays raised BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Desjardins reduced their price objective on BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, National Bank Financial lifted their price objective on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$37.78.

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.