BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $49.00.

BCE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. TD Securities lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BCE

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in BCE by 6.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,928,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $73,615,000 after purchasing an additional 109,866 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in BCE by 57.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,318,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $88,908,000 after purchasing an additional 843,626 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 29,477 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,161,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its stake in shares of BCE by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 13,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $546,000 after acquiring an additional 2,841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Claret Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of BCE by 54.2% during the third quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp now owns 86,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,307,000 after acquiring an additional 30,444 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Trading Down 0.3 %

BCE stock opened at $33.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.43. BCE has a fifty-two week low of $31.82 and a fifty-two week high of $48.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $30.52 billion, a PE ratio of 23.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.56.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 16.86%. The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BCE will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.738 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.82%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 204.86%.

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.