Scotiabank Issues Pessimistic Estimate for BCE Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Research analysts at Scotiabank lowered their FY2025 EPS estimates for shares of BCE in a report released on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $2.80 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $2.87. Scotiabank currently has a “Sector Perform” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

BCE has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays cut BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on BCE from C$45.00 to C$41.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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 research report on Friday, February 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on shares of 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 assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$40.50.

BCE Stock Down 0.2 %

BCE stock opened at C$32.20 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of C$29.17 billion, a PE ratio of 108.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 12 month low of C$31.43 and a 12 month 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. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$33.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$38.28.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. BCE’s payout ratio 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.