Insider Selling: BCE (TSE:BCE) Insider Sells 3,645 Shares of Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) insider Sean Cohan sold 3,645 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$33.48, for a total value of C$122,034.60.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE stock traded down C$0.48 during midday trading on Friday, hitting C$32.72. The stock had a trading volume of 4,919,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,713,109. BCE Inc. has a 52 week low of C$29.17 and a 52 week high of C$36.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$33.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$33.51. The firm has a market capitalization of C$30.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported C$0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.07% and a return on equity of 29.69%. The firm had revenue of C$6.17 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th were paid a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s payout ratio is presently 25.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on BCE shares. Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. National Bank Financial increased their target price on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Friday, February 6th. TD Securities cut BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Desjardins dropped their price objective on BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.78.

BCE Company Profile

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.