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

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$52.15.

Several brokerages have recently commented on BCE. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on BCE from C$57.00 to C$55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. National Bankshares dropped their price target on BCE from C$55.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$52.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. CIBC upgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Cormark reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$58.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Thursday, April 18th.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$46.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 184.91, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.61. BCE has a one year low of C$43.96 and a one year high of C$64.48. The company has a market cap of C$42.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a fifty day moving average of C$46.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$50.71.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported C$0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$0.73 by C$0.03. BCE had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 9.36%. The firm had revenue of C$6.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$6.48 billion. As a group, analysts predict that BCE will post 3.0296638 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.998 dividend. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.