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

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been given an average recommendation of “Reduce” by the twelve research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$40.50.

A number of analysts have commented on BCE shares. National Bankshares increased their price target on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th.

BCE Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of BCE opened at C$32.87 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is C$33.84. BCE has a 12 month low of C$31.43 and a 12 month high of C$49.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of C$29.77 billion, a PE ratio of 110.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.14%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1,338.57%.

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.