The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 4, edition that TD analyst Vince Valentini has elevated his recommendation for BCE to "buy" from "hold," citing recent weakness in the stock as well as expectations for lower bond yields. The Globe's Darcy Keith writes that Mr. Valentini boosted his share target by a loonie to $57. Analysts on average target the shares at $57.21. Mr. Valentini expects BCE, which is already sporting a juicy dividend yield, to announce another bump in its payout to shareholders alongside fourth quarter results on Feb. 8. Mr. Valentini says in a note: "Some investors fear that [dividend] growth could decelerate to 3 per cent from 5 per cent, but even at 3 per cent, the prospective yield would be 7.4 per cent at the current share price (7.6 per cent if they bump 5 per cent). ... On our free cash flow definition, the payout ratio will be over 100 per cent in 2024 with either a 3-per-cent or 5-per-cent dividend increase, but the amount of borrowing required to fund the delta is trivial, in our view. We estimate $242-million in debt to fund 5-per-cent dividend growth and $171-million to fund 3 per cent, which are both rounding errors on total debt/preferred shares of about $38-billion."