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

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) have been given a consensus rating of “Reduce” by the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$40.42.

BCE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays cut shares of 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 report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities lifted 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. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$41.00 to C$37.50 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted 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.

BCE Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$33.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.27 billion, a PE ratio of 112.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 52-week low of C$31.43 and a 52-week high of C$50.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$33.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$39.86.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th were paid a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.94%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.