BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Rating Lowered by Cibc World Mkts

Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 price target on BCE and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. National Bank Financial raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of BCE from C$31.50 to C$32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a C$39.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Two 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$36.73.

BCE Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$30.81 on Thursday. BCE has a 12-month low of C$28.73 and a 12-month high of C$49.13. The company has a market capitalization of C$27.91 billion, a PE ratio of 103.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$30.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$32.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.68%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.