BCE (TSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon Acquires 15,000 Shares

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon purchased 15,000 shares of BCE stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was bought at an average price of C$33.39 per share, for a total transaction of C$500,850.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 75,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$2,504,250. The trade was a 25.00% increase in their position.

BCE Trading Down 1.4%

TSE BCE opened at C$32.72 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$33.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$33.51. BCE Inc. has a one year low of C$29.17 and a one year high of C$36.25. The stock has a market capitalization 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

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

BCE Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Desjardins dropped their target price 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. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price 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. National Bank Financial boosted their target price 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. TD Securities downgraded shares of 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus 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.