JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts BCE (TSE:BCE) Price Target to C$28.00

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) had its price target reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from C$29.00 to C$28.00 in a report published on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also commented on BCE. National Bankshares lifted their price objective on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays cut shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price target on BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$40.42.

BCE Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of TSE:BCE opened at C$31.92 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of C$28.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.09, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 12-month low of C$30.71 and a 12-month high of C$49.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$33.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$37.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.9975 dividend. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.