BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$37.31.

Several research firms have commented on BCE. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. TD Securities upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th.

BCE Trading Up 0.3%

TSE BCE opened at C$32.57 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$31.56 and its 200-day moving average price is C$33.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. The stock has a market cap of C$30.37 billion, a PE ratio of 4.83, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.30. BCE has a 12 month low of C$29.66 and a 12 month high of C$36.25.

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

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.