BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Given Consensus Rating of “Reduce” by Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$40.50.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BCE. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities increased their price target on 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 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. Finally, National Bankshares boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$32.20 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of C$29.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.03, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$33.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$38.28. BCE has a 12-month low of C$31.43 and a 12-month high of C$49.13.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.