BCE (TSE:BCE) Sets New 52-Week Low – Here’s Why

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as C$28.14 and last traded at C$28.30, with a volume of 2200176 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$28.97.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. Scotia upped their price objective on BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. TD Securities upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Scotiabank lowered their price target on BCE from C$41.00 to C$39.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 price objective on BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$37.69.

BCE Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$26.36 billion, a PE ratio of 4.19, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of C$31.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$32.52.

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

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.96%.

Insider Activity

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$30.63 per share, with a total value of C$306,300.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. The trade was a 11.11% increase in their position. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.