Scotiabank Has Pessimistic Opinion of BCE FY2027 Earnings

Key Points

• Scotiabank lowered its FY2027 EPS estimate for BCE to $2.61 from $2.66, while maintaining a “Sector Outperform” rating and a $36.50 price target.
• Analyst sentiment remains generally positive: 10 analysts rate BCE a Buy and three a Hold, producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a C$37.12 average price target.
• BCE shares opened at C$28.63, near the lower end of their 12-month range, while the company continues to offer a quarterly dividend of $0.4375, equivalent to an annualized yield of about 6.1%.

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Free Report) NYSE: BCE - Investment analysts at Scotiabank reduced their FY2027 EPS estimates for BCE in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, October 22nd. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now anticipates that the company will earn $2.61 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $2.66. Scotiabank has a "Sector Outperform" rating and a $36.50 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE's current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on BCE. Desjardins dropped their price target on BCE from C$43.00 to C$41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of BCE from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. TD upped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 15th. Finally, Scotia increased their price objective on shares of BCE from C$39.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of C$37.12.

BCE Price Performance

Shares of TSE BCE opened at C$28.63 on Monday. The business's 50 day moving average price is C$30.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$31.69. The company has a market cap of C$26.70 billion, a PE ratio of 4.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06. BCE has a twelve month low of C$26.66 and a twelve month high of C$36.25.

BCE (TSE:BCE - Get Free Report) NYSE: BCE last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 25.89% and a return on equity of 27.73%. The business had revenue of C$6.18 billion during the quarter.

Insider Activity

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 100,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their position. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BCE Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were issued a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.1%. BCE's payout ratio is currently 25.96%.

BCE Company Profile

Bell Media is Canada's leading media and entertainment company with a portfolio of assets in premium video, audio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media. This includes Canada's most-watched television network, CTV; the largest Canadian-owned video streamer, Crave, with a premium add-on to include STARZ; a powerful suite of specialty channels; the most-trusted news brand, CTV News; Canada's cross-platform sports leaders, TSN and RDS; leading out-of-home advertising network, Astral; Québec's fast-growing conventional French-language network, Noovo; the country's leading radio and podcast app, iHeartRadio Canada; and a range of award-winning original productions, brands, and services.

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