BCE (TSE:BCE) Shares Cross Above Fifty Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) shares 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BCE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. National Bank Financial dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Scotiabank decreased their target price 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. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$38.00 and set an “outperformer” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$32.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$37.42.

BCE Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. The business’s 50-day moving average is C$29.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$32.45. The company has a market capitalization of C$28.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.41.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.74 earnings per share 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. As a group, analysts predict that BCE Inc. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were given 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 currently 25.96%.

Insider Activity at BCE

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price 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 represents a 11.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About BCE

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.