Scotiabank Issues Optimistic Forecast for BCE Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Equities research analysts at Scotiabank lifted their FY2026 earnings estimates for shares of BCE in a report released on Friday, April 10th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now anticipates that the company will post earnings per share of $2.60 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $2.53. Scotiabank currently has a “Outperform” rating and a $41.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. National Bank Financial raised their price target on shares of BCE from C$38.00 to C$39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Desjardins cut their target price on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$41.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. TD Securities downgraded shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$37.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of BCE from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$37.25.

BCE Trading Up 1.4%

BCE opened at C$32.88 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is C$34.93 and its 200-day moving average is C$33.54. BCE has a 1-year low of C$29.10 and a 1-year high of C$36.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 179.16. The company has a market cap of C$30.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.84, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.34.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 6th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. BCE had a net margin of 26.40% and a return on equity of 31.99%. The company had revenue of C$6.40 billion for the quarter.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 16th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.02%.

About BCE

Bell Media is Canada’s leading media and entertainment company with a portfolio of assets in premium video, audio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media. This includes Canada’s most-watched television network, CTV; the largest Canadian-owned video streamer, Crave, with a premium add-on to include STARZ; a powerful suite of specialty channels; the most-trusted news brand, CTV News; Canada’s cross-platform sports leaders, TSN and RDS; leading out-of-home advertising network, Astral; Québec’s fast-growing conventional French-language network, Noovo; the country’s leading radio and podcast app, iHeartRadio Canada; and a range of award-winning original productions, brands, and services.