Insider Buying: BCE (TSE:BCE) Director Purchases C$306,300.00 in Stock

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. The trade was a 11.11% increase in their ownership of the stock.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:BCE traded down C$0.02 on Monday, hitting C$30.88. The company had a trading volume of 6,157,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,162,961. BCE Inc. has a 1-year low of C$29.66 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The stock has a market cap of C$28.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of C$31.67 and a 200 day moving average price of C$32.81. 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 posted its 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 company had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank decreased their target price on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Desjardins boosted their price target on BCE from C$41.00 to C$43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$37.69.

About BCE

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.