TD Securities Issues Positive Forecast for BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target boosted by TD Securities from C$31.00 to C$33.00 in a report published on Friday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a hold rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on BCE from C$41.00 to C$35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on BCE from C$37.50 to C$33.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, National Bankshares cut their price objective on BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BCE currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$40.42.

BCE Trading Down 6.2 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$31.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 197.43, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE has a 1 year low of C$31.43 and a 1 year high of C$52.01. The stock has a market capitalization of C$28.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.71, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$34.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$41.31.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.77 by C($0.02). BCE had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 8.75%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that BCE will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th were issued a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.62%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 185.58%.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.