Scotiabank Weighs in on BCE's FY2026 Earnings (TSE:BCE)

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE - Free Report) NYSE: BCE - Analysts at Scotiabank lifted their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of BCE in a research report issued on Tuesday, July 15th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now expects that the company will post earnings of $2.76 per share for the year, up from their prior forecast of $2.67. Scotiabank has a "Strong-Buy" rating and a $39.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE's current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on BCE. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of BCE from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of BCE from C$34.00 to C$32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Desjardins upped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$36.00 to C$39.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$28.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of C$36.73.

BCE Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of TSE:BCE traded down C$0.62 during trading on Friday, reaching C$32.50. The stock had a trading volume of 2,632,612 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,899,940. The firm's fifty day moving average is C$30.69 and its 200 day moving average is C$31.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. BCE has a 52 week low of C$28.73 and a 52 week high of C$49.13. The stock has a market cap of C$29.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.38%. BCE's 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.