BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” from Brokerages

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has earned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$40.42.

BCE has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$37.50 in a report on Friday, November 8th.

BCE Trading Down 1.1 %

BCE stock opened at C$33.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of C$30.27 billion, a PE ratio of 112.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 12 month low of C$31.43 and a 12 month high of C$50.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$33.58 and its 200 day moving average is C$39.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were issued a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 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.