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

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$36.73.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BCE shares. CIBC reduced their target price on shares of BCE from C$52.00 to C$33.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Scotiabank raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a C$39.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, June 2nd. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 price objective on shares of BCE and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of BCE from C$28.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th.

BCE Stock Down 0.7%

BCE stock opened at C$30.81 on Friday. 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 has a 52-week low of C$28.73 and a 52-week high of C$49.13. The company has a 50-day moving average of C$30.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$32.02. The stock has a market capitalization of C$27.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.68%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 1,338.57%.

About BCE

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.