BCE (TSE:BCE) Upgraded at TD Securities

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) was upgraded by analysts at TD Securities from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. TD raised BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$37.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price target on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Desjardins lowered their price target on 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of C$38.33.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$30.37 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$33.15 and its 200 day moving average price is C$33.74. BCE has a 1 year low of C$30.03 and a 1 year high of C$36.25. The company has a market capitalization of C$28.32 billion, a PE ratio of 4.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.24. 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 (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 EPS 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 for the quarter. On average, research analysts predict that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BCE news, insider Sean Cohan sold 3,645 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$33.48, for a total value of C$122,034.60. Also, insider Karine Moses sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 3,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$123,424. This trade represents a 48.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Over the last three months, insiders sold 11,255 shares of company stock worth $376,464. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.