BCE (TSE:BCE) Reaches New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday after National Bank Financial lowered their price target on the stock from C$38.00 to C$36.00. National Bank Financial currently has an outperform rating on the stock. BCE traded as low as C$28.14 and last traded at C$28.30, with a volume of 2200176 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$28.97.

Several other research firms have also commented on BCE. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price target on shares of BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. TD boosted their price objective on BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 15th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their position. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

BCE Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of C$26.27 billion, a PE ratio of 4.18, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average is C$31.49 and its 200-day moving average is C$32.44.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%.The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.96%.

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.