Analysts Set BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) PT at C$34.88

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$34.88.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on BCE shares. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Desjardins upped their target price on shares of BCE from C$40.00 to C$40.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 10th. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 target price on shares of BCE and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. CIBC upped their target price on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd.

BCE Stock Performance

BCE opened at C$32.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of C$29.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.02, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.65. BCE has a 1-year low of C$28.73 and a 1-year high of C$47.60. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of C$33.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$31.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.4%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 745.65%.

BCE Company Profile

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.