BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Receives $38.67 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $38.6667.

BCE has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Securities restated a “hold” rating on shares of BCE in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of BCE in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. National Bankshares restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Desjardins upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts downgraded BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd.

BCE Stock Up 0.6%

BCE stock opened at $24.96 on Tuesday. BCE has a fifty-two week low of $20.28 and a fifty-two week high of $36.17. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $24.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $23.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.63.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.06). BCE had a return on equity of 18.89% and a net margin of 1.96%.The firm had revenue of $4.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.91 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. BCE has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.910-1.980 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that BCE will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.4375 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.0%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 437.93%.

Institutional Trading of BCE

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in BCE by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 249,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,787,000 after acquiring an additional 11,746 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in BCE by 109.3% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 17,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $407,000 after acquiring an additional 9,171 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its position in BCE by 49.0% in the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 80,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,854,000 after acquiring an additional 26,292 shares in the last quarter. WealthCollab LLC bought a new position in BCE in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Triumph Capital Management lifted its position in BCE by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Triumph Capital Management now owns 27,740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $643,000 after acquiring an additional 4,030 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.46% of the company’s stock.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.