BCE (TSE:BCE) Sets New 52-Week Low – What’s Next?

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on BCE. National Bankshares raised their price target on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Securities raised their price target on shares of 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 lowered shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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 on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$40.42.

BCE Stock Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market cap of C$29.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.63, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of C$33.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$37.51.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 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.