BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$33.46 and traded as high as C$35.37. BCE shares last traded at C$35.26, with a volume of 2,551,187 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on BCE shares. BMO Capital Markets raised BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$37.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. National Bank Financial raised 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. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on 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, Desjardins increased their target price on BCE from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$37.30.

BCE Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is C$35.20 and its 200 day moving average price is C$33.47. The stock has a market capitalization of C$31.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 31.99%. The company had revenue of C$6.40 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.02%.

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.