BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$37.04.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BCE. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$34.00 to C$32.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$31.50 to C$32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Desjardins upped their price objective on BCE from C$36.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, National Bankshares set a C$35.00 price target on shares of BCE and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 6th.

BCE Trading Down 0.8%

TSE:BCE opened at C$31.01 on Monday. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of C$30.14 and a 200 day moving average of C$32.72. The firm has a market capitalization of C$28.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 52 week low of C$28.73 and a 52 week high of C$49.13.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.64%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.