BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Reduce" from Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE have received a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" from the twelve research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$40.50.

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares increased their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an "equal weight" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price target for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BCE from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and dropped their target price for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th.

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BCE Stock Down 0.8 %

BCE stock traded down C$0.26 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching C$32.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,138,227 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,848,044. 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 12 month low of C$31.43 and a 12 month high of C$49.13. The business's 50 day simple moving average is C$33.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$37.88. The company has a market capitalization of C$29.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.9975 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.14%. BCE's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1,338.57%.

BCE Company Profile

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.