Scotiabank Issues Pessimistic Forecast for BCE Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Research analysts at Scotiabank dropped their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of BCE in a research report issued on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $2.80 per share for the year, down from their prior estimate of $2.87. Scotiabank currently has a “Sector Perform” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lowered shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, National Bankshares lifted their price objective 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$32.57 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of C$29.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 109.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 52-week low of C$31.43 and a 52-week high of C$49.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of C$33.88.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is 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.