National Bank Financial Boosts Earnings Estimates for BCE

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Equities researchers at National Bank Financial boosted their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of BCE in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, March 26th. National Bank Financial analyst A. Shine now anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of $2.78 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $2.70. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on BCE. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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 report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Barclays lowered BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.87 on Monday. The company has a market cap of C$29.77 billion, a PE ratio of 110.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. 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 50-day moving average price of C$33.84. BCE has a 52-week low of C$31.43 and a 52-week high of C$49.13.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.14%. BCE’s payout ratio 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.