BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Rating Lowered by Barclays

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) was downgraded by research analysts at Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report released on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a C$30.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of C$41.00. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential downside of 13.32% from the company’s previous close.

BCE has been the topic of several other research reports. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$42.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$37.50 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. National Bankshares dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.50 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$40.96.

BCE Stock Performance

TSE:BCE traded up C$0.40 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting C$34.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 510,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,394,303. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$31.43 and a fifty-two week high of C$54.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average is C$34.87 and its 200-day moving average is C$41.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 197.43, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of C$31.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.77 by C($0.02). BCE had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 8.75%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.81 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About BCE

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.