Cibc World Mkts Downgrades BCE (TSE:BCE) to Hold

BCE (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE was downgraded by analysts at Cibc World Mkts from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 target price on shares of BCE and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BCE from C$28.00 to C$29.00 in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on BCE from C$31.50 to C$32.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, CIBC cut their target price on shares of BCE from C$52.00 to C$33.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of C$36.73.

BCE Price Performance

TSE BCE traded up C$0.98 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting C$31.82. The company had a trading volume of 5,344,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,922,455. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.75, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 52 week low of C$28.73 and a 52 week high of C$49.13. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$30.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$31.98.

About BCE

BCE is both a wireless and internet service provider, offering wireless, broadband, television, and landline phone services in Canada. It is one of the big three national wireless carriers, with its roughly 10 million customers constituting about 30% of the market. It is also the ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrierthe legacy telephone provider) throughout much of the eastern half of Canada, including in the most populous Canadian provincesOntario and Quebec.