BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Announces $1.00 Quarterly Dividend

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.998 per share on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th.

BCE Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$45.96 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$46.52 and a 200-day moving average of C$50.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.98. The stock has a market cap of C$41.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.44. BCE has a 1-year low of C$43.96 and a 1-year high of C$65.11.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.73 by C$0.03. The business had revenue of C$6.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$6.48 billion. BCE had a net margin of 9.17% and a return on equity of 10.81%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BCE will post 3.0377747 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of BCE from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from C$54.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on BCE from C$57.00 to C$55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. TD Securities cut their target price on BCE from C$48.00 to C$47.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Scotiabank lowered their target price on BCE from C$53.25 to C$53.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Cormark dropped their price target on BCE from C$58.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$52.15.

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.