BCE (TSE:BCE) Hits New 12-Month Low – Here’s Why

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The company traded as low as C$31.17 and last traded at C$31.27, with a volume of 3114589 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$32.63.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BCE. National Bankshares upped their target price on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. TD Securities increased their target price on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target 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 reduced their target price for the stock from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The company has a market capitalization of C$28.18 billion, a PE ratio of 104.37, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$33.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$37.74.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.83%. 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.