BCE Inc. (BCE) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 16th

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a dividend of 0.729 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th.

BCE has a dividend payout ratio of 136.2% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect BCE to earn $2.18 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.97 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 136.2%.

BCE Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:BCE opened at $35.39 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.90. BCE has a one year low of $31.13 and a one year high of $41.77. The firm has a market cap of $32.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.65.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.46 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 8.39%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.59 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that BCE will post 2.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BCE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on BCE from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.33.

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.