National Bank Financial Upgrades BCE (TSE:BCE) to “Strong-Buy”

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) was upgraded by stock analysts at National Bank Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports. National Bank Financial also issued estimates for BCE’s FY2025 earnings at $2.78 EPS.

BCE has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank dropped their price target on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$39.36.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$32.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$29.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.63, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. BCE has a 52-week low of C$30.71 and a 52-week high of C$49.13. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$33.71 and a 200-day moving average of C$37.40.

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.