BCE Inc. Expected to Earn Q1 2024 Earnings of $0.51 Per Share (NYSE:BCE)

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) – Stock analysts at Cormark issued their Q1 2024 earnings per share estimates for BCE in a research note issued on Thursday, April 18th. Cormark analyst D. Mcfadgen expects that the utilities provider will post earnings of $0.51 per share for the quarter. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $2.25 per share.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on BCE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from $38.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, TD Securities downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BCE opened at $32.60 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $29.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.56. BCE has a twelve month low of $31.82 and a twelve month high of $48.38. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.81.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion.

BCE Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.742 per share. This represents a $2.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.11%. This is an increase from BCE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is 174.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in shares of BCE by 53.5% in the 1st quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 13,375,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $742,107,000 after buying an additional 4,661,300 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in BCE by 400.8% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,570,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $136,294,000 after acquiring an additional 2,857,340 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in BCE by 171.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,284,802 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $168,736,000 after acquiring an additional 2,708,625 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BCE in the 4th quarter valued at about $117,492,000. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its position in shares of BCE by 18.8% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 14,007,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,505,000 after purchasing an additional 2,217,262 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

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.