BCE (TSE:BCE) Upgraded at National Bank Financial

National Bank Financial upgraded shares of BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports. National Bank Financial also issued estimates for BCE’s FY2025 earnings at $2.78 EPS.

BCE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares boosted their price target on shares of BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. 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. Finally, TD Securities increased their price target on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$39.36.

BCE Trading Up 1.4 %

BCE opened at C$32.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$29.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$33.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$37.40. BCE has a 1-year low of C$30.71 and a 1-year high of C$49.13. 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 will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.32%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1,338.57%.

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.