BCE (TSE:BCE) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank decreased 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 research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of 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. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of BCE from C$31.00 to C$33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$33.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$37.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.62. The company has a market cap of C$28.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 104.37, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.9975 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.83%. BCE’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.