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

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

BCE Stock Down 1.4%

BCE stock traded down C$0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting C$32.72. 4,919,192 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,713,109. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.66. BCE Inc. has a 1-year low of C$29.17 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$33.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$33.51. The firm has a market cap of C$30.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33.

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

BCE Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays raised BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins decreased 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. TD Securities lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$37.78.

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.