Scotiabank Has Negative Forecast for BCE FY2026 Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Investment analysts at Scotiabank lowered their FY2026 EPS estimates for shares of BCE in a research note issued on Thursday, September 17th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now forecasts that the company will earn $2.61 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $2.63. Scotiabank has a “Sector Outperform” rating and a $39.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported C$0.65 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$6.18 billion for the quarter. BCE had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 25.89%.

BCE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. TD raised their price target on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 15th. Desjardins upped their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on BCE from C$39.00 to C$36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial set a C$37.00 target price on BCE and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded BCE from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from C$31.00 to C$35.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$37.69.

BCE Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of BCE opened at C$30.88 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of C$28.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.58, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 175.06, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.43. BCE has a one year low of C$29.66 and a one year high of C$36.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$31.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$32.81.

Insider Activity

In other BCE news, Director Louis Vachon bought 10,000 shares of BCE stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of C$30.63 per share, for a total transaction of C$306,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$3,063,000. This trade represents a 11.11% increase in their position. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4375 per share. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.96%.

BCE Company Profile

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.