BCE (TSE:BCE) Upgraded by National Bank Financial to “Strong-Buy” Rating

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

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. National Bankshares boosted their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays cut BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of BCE from C$29.00 to C$28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$39.36.

BCE Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of C$29.33 billion, a PE ratio of 108.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$33.71 and a 200 day moving average price of 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 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is 1,338.57%.

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.