BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.74

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.738 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th.

BCE has raised its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. BCE has a payout ratio of 126.1% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect BCE to earn $2.34 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 123.9%.

BCE Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE BCE traded up $0.60 on Friday, reaching $33.60. 2,259,640 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,552,301. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $34.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.53. The company has a market cap of $30.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.56. BCE has a 12 month low of $31.82 and a 12 month high of $48.24.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.82 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 17.13% and a net margin of 8.82%. As a group, research analysts forecast that BCE will post 2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BCE has been the subject of several recent research reports. CIBC raised BCE from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on BCE from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $46.00 target price (down from $54.00) on shares of BCE in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Argus downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, TD Securities downgraded BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.00.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.