Analyzing BCE (BCE) & Its Peers

BCE (NYSE:BCE) is one of 203 public companies in the “Diversified Telecommunication Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare BCE to similar companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and risk.

Risk & Volatility

BCE has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BCE’s rivals have a beta of -4.90, suggesting that their average stock price is 590% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for BCE and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BCE	0	5	7	0	2.58
BCE Competitors	1753	5343	7759	384	2.44

BCE presently has a consensus target price of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 37.36%. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies have a potential upside of 18.97%. Given BCE’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe BCE is more favorable than its rivals.

Dividends

BCE pays an annual dividend of $1.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. BCE pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 13.7% and pay out 33.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BCE and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
BCE	$17.51 billion	$4.62 billion	4.32
BCE Competitors	$24.18 billion	$893.66 million	-168.65

BCE’s rivals have higher revenue, but lower earnings than BCE. BCE is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

41.5% of BCE shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of BCE shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of shares of all “Diversified Telecommunication Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BCE and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BCE	25.49%	12.90%	3.25%
BCE Competitors	-11.85%	-217.35%	-3.33%

Summary

BCE beats its rivals on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc., a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers. This segment also buys and sells local telephone, long distance, and data and other services from or to resellers and other carriers; and operates consumer electronics retail stores. The Bell Media segment provides conventional TV, specialty TV, pay TV, streaming services, digital media services, radio broadcasting services, and out-of-home advertising services. BCE Inc. was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Verdun, Canada.