BCE (TSE:BCE) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Barclays

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) was downgraded by equities researchers at Barclays from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BCE. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$32.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on BCE from C$37.50 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on BCE from C$41.00 to C$35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$42.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$41.88.

BCE Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of TSE:BCE opened at C$33.34 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 197.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.65. BCE has a 52-week low of C$31.43 and a 52-week high of C$55.75. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$35.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$42.01. The firm has a market cap of C$30.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.51, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.77 by C($0.02). BCE had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 8.75%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.1120864 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.