BMO Capital Markets Boosts BCE (NYSE:BCE) Price Target to $51.00

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) had its price objective raised by BMO Capital Markets from $48.00 to $51.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Separately, Cibc World Mkts raised BCE from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $46.67.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE stock opened at $35.04 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.97 billion, a PE ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.65. BCE has a one year low of $31.13 and a one year high of $41.77.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 8.39%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BCE will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.729 dividend. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is 204.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BCE

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,725,614 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $500,376,000 after purchasing an additional 80,879 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of BCE by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of BCE by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 11,151,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $441,217,000 after acquiring an additional 435,681 shares in the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. raised its position in shares of BCE by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 9,085,576 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $357,678,000 after acquiring an additional 287,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of BCE by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,450,810 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $273,553,000 after acquiring an additional 905,857 shares in the last quarter. 41.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BCE Company Profile

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.