BCE (TSE:BCE) Rating Lowered to Hold at TD Securities

Key Points

• TD Securities downgraded BCE from "buy" to "hold", cutting its target to C$37.00 from C$41.00 and implying roughly a 9.8% upside from the prior close.
• Shares slid C$1.55 to C$33.71 on heavy volume, while the company trades at a low P/E of 4.96 with a market cap of C$31.44 billion and strong profitability metrics (net margin 26.4%, ROE 31.99%).
• Analyst opinion is mixed but mildly positive: MarketBeat's consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with a C$37.30 target, and several firms (BMO, Desjardins, RBC, Scotiabank) recently raised ratings or price targets.

BCE (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE was downgraded by stock analysts at TD Securities from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. They presently have a C$37.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of C$41.00. TD Securities' price objective would suggest a potential upside of 9.76% from the company's previous close.

BCE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays raised BCE from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded BCE from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a C$37.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Desjardins increased their price objective on BCE from C$40.00 to C$42.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of C$37.30.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of TSE BCE traded down C$1.55 during trading on Thursday, hitting C$33.71. The company had a trading volume of 5,964,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,698,998. The firm has a market capitalization of C$31.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of C$35.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$33.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$28.73 and a fifty-two week high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$6.40 billion during the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 31.99%. On average, research analysts expect that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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