BCE Inc. (BCE) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $1.00 on July 15th

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.998 per share on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$45.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.98, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.65. BCE has a 52 week low of C$43.96 and a 52 week high of C$65.11. The stock has a market capitalization of C$41.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$46.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$50.88.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.73 by C$0.03. BCE had a net margin of 9.17% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of C$6.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$6.48 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BCE will post 3.0377747 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on BCE from C$57.00 to C$55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. National Bankshares cut their price objective on shares of BCE from C$55.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Desjardins reduced their target price on shares of BCE from C$58.00 to C$55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on BCE from C$54.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut BCE from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from C$54.00 to C$46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.15.

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.