BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives C$40.42 Average PT from Analysts

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the twelve brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$40.42.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price 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. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities raised 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, February 7th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$34.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The company has a market cap of C$30.81 billion, a PE ratio of 114.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of C$33.65 and a 200-day moving average of C$39.56. BCE has a 1-year low of C$31.43 and a 1-year high of C$49.67.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.73%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 1,338.57%.

BCE Company Profile

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.