BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price Down 3% Following Analyst Downgrade

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE dropped 3% during trading on Tuesday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from C$39.00 to C$37.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. BCE traded as low as C$30.39 and last traded at C$30.53. Approximately 2,055,749 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 3,911,561 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$31.49.

BCE has been the subject of a number of other reports. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of BCE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays downgraded shares of BCE from an "equal weight" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. National Bankshares raised their price target on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. TD Securities upped their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of BCE from C$29.00 to C$28.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of C$38.82.

BCE Stock Up 1.0 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$33.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$36.60. The firm has a market cap of C$26.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.34, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.48%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.