BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target Lowered to C$38.00 at TD Securities

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target cut by TD Securities from C$39.00 to C$38.00 in a research report released on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on BCE. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of BCE from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$35.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. CIBC boosted their price target on BCE from C$36.00 to C$37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. National Bankshares set a C$35.00 price objective on BCE and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on BCE from C$39.50 to C$41.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on BCE from C$51.00 to C$35.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$36.23.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE traded down C$0.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching C$32.53. 4,424,740 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,705,387. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$32.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$32.05. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.34 billion, a PE ratio of 70.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.52. BCE has a 52-week low of C$28.73 and a 52-week high of C$39.83. 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 company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.4375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.75 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. BCE’s payout ratio is 745.65%.

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.