BCE (TSE:BCE) Shares Down 3% on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) were down 3% on Tuesday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from C$39.00 to C$37.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the stock. BCE traded as low as C$30.39 and last traded at C$30.53. Approximately 2,055,749 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 3,911,561 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$31.49.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Barclays lowered shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities lifted their price target on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on BCE from C$29.00 to C$28.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$38.82.

BCE Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$33.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$36.78. The firm has a market cap of C$26.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

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 is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.48%. BCE’s 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.