National Bank Financial Expects Increased Earnings for BCE

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Stock analysts at National Bank Financial boosted their FY2025 earnings estimates for shares of BCE in a report issued on Wednesday, March 26th. National Bank Financial analyst A. Shine now anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of $2.78 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $2.70. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays lowered shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price objective on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$40.50.

BCE Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.87 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of C$29.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s 50 day moving average is C$33.84. BCE has a 1 year low of C$31.43 and a 1 year high of C$49.13.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.14%. BCE’s payout ratio is 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.