BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives C$40.42 Average PT from Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE has received a consensus rating of "Reduce" from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two 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. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$40.42.

A number of analysts recently commented on BCE shares. Barclays downgraded shares of BCE from an "equal weight" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. 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. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$37.50 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of TSE BCE traded up C$0.21 during midday trading on Friday, reaching C$34.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,848,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,820,756. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The company has a 50 day moving average price of C$33.62 and a 200 day moving average price of C$39.60. BCE has a one year low of C$31.43 and a one year high of C$49.67. The company has a market cap of C$30.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. BCE's payout ratio is presently 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.