BCE (TSE:BCE) Upgraded at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has C$32.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on BCE. TD increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. 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 note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, TD Securities upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.31.

BCE Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$28.58 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of C$30.96 and a 200 day moving average of C$31.95. 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 has a market capitalization of C$26.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.24, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$26.66 and a fifty-two week high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%. As a group, research analysts predict that BCE will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.1%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.96%.

Insider Transactions at BCE

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly 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 ownership of the stock. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company 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.