Brokerages Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Price Target at C$40.50

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two 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 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$40.50.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BCE shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares upped their price target 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. TD Securities increased their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.87 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$33.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$37.96. The firm has a market capitalization of C$29.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a fifty-two week low of C$31.43 and a fifty-two week high of C$49.13. 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 Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend payout ratio 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.