Louis Vachon Buys 15,000 Shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon bought 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$33.39 per share, for a total transaction of C$500,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 75,000 shares in the company, valued at C$2,504,250. This represents a 25.00% increase in their position.

BCE Price Performance

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

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its 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 business had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on BCE. National Bank Financial boosted their price target on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.