BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives C$52.15 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$52.00.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$54.00 to C$47.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of BCE from C$46.00 to C$47.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. National Bankshares cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$52.00 to C$50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. TD Securities cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$48.00 to C$47.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Cormark cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$58.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$44.61 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of C$40.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 184.91, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE has a 1 year low of C$43.96 and a 1 year high of C$60.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$45.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$48.95.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of C$0.72. BCE had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 9.36%. The firm had revenue of C$6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$6.09 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.0157895 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a $0.998 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 207.81%.

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.