BCE (TSE:BCE) Rating Lowered to Underweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) was downgraded by investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a C$29.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of C$35.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 9.09% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on BCE. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. National Bankshares cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.50 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$40.42.

BCE Trading Down 5.3 %

Shares of BCE stock traded down C$1.80 on Friday, hitting C$31.90. 5,331,610 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,993,007. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 197.43. The company has a market cap of C$29.10 billion, a PE ratio of 14.84, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is C$34.53 and its 200-day moving average price is C$41.31. BCE has a 52 week low of C$31.43 and a 52 week high of C$52.01.

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

About BCE

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.