JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Pessimistic Forecast for BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price

BCE (TSE:BCE - Free Report) NYSE: BCE had its target price cut by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from C$29.00 to C$28.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on BCE. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an "equal weight" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price target for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares increased their target price on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of C$39.18.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock traded down C$1.72 during trading on Thursday, reaching C$29.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,005,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,963,058. BCE has a one year low of C$29.39 and a one year high of C$49.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market cap of C$26.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The business's fifty day moving average price is C$33.65 and its 200-day moving average price is C$37.28.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.40%. BCE's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.