BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target Raised to C$32.00

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price objective boosted by Canaccord Genuity Group from C$31.50 to C$32.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on BCE. Royal Bank of Canada cut 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of BCE from C$29.00 to C$28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. 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. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$37.55.

BCE Stock Performance

TSE BCE opened at C$31.60 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$31.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$34.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. BCE has a 12-month low of C$28.73 and a 12-month high of C$49.13. The firm has a market cap of C$28.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.01, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were issued a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.63%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.