BCE, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of C$0.44 (NYSE:BCE)

BCE, Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th will be given a dividend of 0.4375 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 6.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 16th.

BCE has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%annually over the last three years. BCE has a dividend payout ratio of 66.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect BCE to earn $1.94 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.25 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.4%.

BCE Trading Down 2.8%

NYSE BCE opened at $25.60 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.32 and a beta of 0.60. BCE has a 12 month low of $20.28 and a 12 month high of $26.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $23.96 and a 200-day moving average of $23.86.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $4.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.14 billion. BCE had a net margin of 25.62% and a return on equity of 17.35%. BCE’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that BCE will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BCE shares. Cibc Captl Mkts upgraded BCE from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of BCE from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of BCE from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. TD Securities raised BCE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BCE has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc (NYSE: BCE) is a Canadian communications, media and entertainment company that operates through its primary subsidiaries, including Bell Canada and Bell Media. As a large integrated telecommunications provider, BCE delivers a broad range of connectivity services and content to residential, business and wholesale customers across Canada. The company combines network infrastructure with media assets to offer bundled communications and entertainment solutions.

On the services side, BCE provides fixed-line and wireless voice services, mobile data, high-speed internet, fibre and broadband access, and television services through platforms such as Bell Fibe and Bell TV.