JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target to C$28.00

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from C$29.00 to C$28.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on BCE. Barclays lowered BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares raised their price objective on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$39.36.

BCE Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of BCE opened at C$32.38 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The firm has a market cap of C$29.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$33.71 and its 200 day moving average price is C$37.32. BCE has a 12-month low of C$30.71 and a 12-month high of C$49.13.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.32%. BCE’s 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.