BCE (TSE:BCE) Shares Cross Above 50-Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE)’s stock price crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of C$29.83 and traded as high as C$30.87. BCE shares last traded at C$30.83, with a volume of 9,723,233 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on BCE. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of BCE from C$40.00 to C$36.50 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price target on BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. National Bank Financial reduced their price target on BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, TD increased their price target on BCE from C$40.00 to C$44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.42.

BCE Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of C$28.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.54, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$29.79 and its 200 day moving average price is C$32.43.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.74 EPS for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 25.89% and a return on equity of 27.73%. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 5.7%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.96%.

Insider Activity

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the acquisition, the director owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

BCE Company Profile

Bell is Canada’s largest communications company 1, leading the way in advanced fibre and wireless networks, enterprise services and digital media. By delivering next-generation technology that leverages cloud-based and AI-driven solutions, we’re keeping customers connected, informed and entertained while enabling businesses to compete on the world stage.