BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Receives $45.33 Average PT from Analysts

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $45.33.

BCE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE opened at $34.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $31.51 billion, a PE ratio of 23.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.62 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $33.22 and a 200-day moving average of $34.18. BCE has a 52-week low of $31.13 and a 52-week high of $42.96.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.19. BCE had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 8.39%. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BCE will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.729 dividend. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 200.69%.

Institutional Trading of BCE

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in BCE by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 15,933,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $643,159,000 after purchasing an additional 221,174 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BCE by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $500,376,000 after buying an additional 80,879 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd lifted its position in shares of BCE by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $551,505,000 after buying an additional 2,217,262 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in BCE by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $441,217,000 after buying an additional 435,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. raised its stake in BCE by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,678,000 after acquiring an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.