Analysts Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) PT at C$54.04

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$53.81.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BCE shares. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on BCE from C$57.00 to C$55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. CIBC decreased their price target on shares of BCE from C$54.00 to C$52.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$57.25 to C$55.50 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. National Bankshares dropped their target price on BCE from C$55.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of BCE from C$54.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

BCE Price Performance

BCE stock opened at C$44.54 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.98, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE has a 1 year low of C$43.96 and a 1 year high of C$65.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$47.95 and a 200 day moving average of C$51.39. The company has a market cap of C$40.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.54, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.73 by C$0.03. The firm had revenue of C$6.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$6.48 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 9.17%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.0377747 EPS for the current year.

BCE Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a $0.998 dividend. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.97. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.96%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 175.00%.

About BCE

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.