Louis Vachon Buys 15,000 Shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon purchased 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$33.39 per share, for a total transaction of C$500,850.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 75,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$2,504,250. This represents a 25.00% increase in their ownership of the stock.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock traded down C$0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting C$32.72. 4,919,192 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,713,109. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$33.90 and a 200 day moving average price of C$33.51. BCE Inc. has a 12 month low of C$29.17 and a 12 month high of C$36.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.90, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.83, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.33.

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

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. National Bank Financial increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. TD Securities downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Desjardins cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$41.50 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.