BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$52.15.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$57.00 to C$55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 9th. CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Cormark dropped their price target on BCE from C$58.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays decreased their price objective on BCE from C$52.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on BCE from C$53.25 to C$53.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday.

BCE Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$45.96 on Friday. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$43.96 and a fifty-two week high of C$64.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 184.91, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of C$41.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of C$46.42 and a 200 day moving average of C$50.83.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported C$0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.73 by C$0.03. BCE had a return on equity of 9.36% and a net margin of 7.88%. The company had revenue of C$6.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$6.48 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.0296638 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.998 per share. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 13th. BCE’s payout ratio is 206.74%.

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.