BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) Given Average Rating of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE have been given an average rating of "Hold" by the eleven research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$37.04.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. Scotiabank upgraded BCE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and set a C$39.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. UBS Group cut their price target on BCE from C$34.00 to C$32.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 price target on BCE and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday. Desjardins raised their price target on BCE from C$36.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded BCE from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd.

BCE Stock Performance

TSE:BCE opened at C$29.82 on Monday. 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 has a 12-month low of C$28.73 and a 12-month high of C$49.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$30.20 and a 200 day moving average price of C$32.89. The stock has a market capitalization of C$27.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 100.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were paid a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. BCE's payout ratio is 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.

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