National Bank Financial Cuts BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target to C$36.00

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target cut by National Bank Financial from C$38.00 to C$36.00 in a research report released on Thursday,BayStreet reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. Scotia raised their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. TD lifted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 15th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 target price on shares of BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$37.46.

BCE Trading Down 0.6%

BCE opened at C$28.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of C$26.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.18, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. BCE has a 12 month low of C$28.14 and a 12 month high of C$36.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of C$31.49 and a 200-day moving average price of C$32.44.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.2%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 25.96%.

Insider Activity at BCE

In related news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following 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 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.