BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Declares $0.70 Quarterly Dividend

BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.6965 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.79 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

BCE has increased its dividend by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years. BCE has a dividend payout ratio of 143.3% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect BCE to earn $2.01 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.78 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 138.3%.

BCE Trading Down 6.3 %

BCE stock traded down $1.49 during trading on Friday, reaching $22.04. The company had a trading volume of 5,709,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,631,306. BCE has a 12-month low of $21.87 and a 12-month high of $38.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $24.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 315.00, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.62.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.03. BCE had a net margin of 0.76% and a return on equity of 17.58%. As a group, equities analysts expect that BCE will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of BCE in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “underweight” rating on the stock. Bank of America cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of BCE in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Edward Jones cut shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.00.

BCE Company Profile

BCE Inc, a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers.