BCE Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.00 (TSE:BCE)

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, March 14th, TickerTech Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.9975 per share on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BCE traded down C$0.64 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting C$35.14. 827,352 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,824,893. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$33.88 and a 200 day moving average of C$39.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. BCE has a 1 year low of C$31.43 and a 1 year high of C$49.13. The stock has a market capitalization of C$31.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 117.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on BCE. National Bankshares increased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Scotiabank dropped their target price on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities lifted their target price on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BCE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$40.50.

About BCE

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.