Brokerages Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Target Price at C$37.31

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$37.31.

Several research firms recently issued reports on BCE. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Scotia boosted their price target on BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Scotiabank cut their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price objective on BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE opened at C$32.79 on Wednesday. BCE has a 12 month low of C$29.66 and a 12 month high of C$36.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$31.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$33.10. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.86, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 25.89% and a return on equity of 27.73%. The firm had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. Research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.96%.

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.