BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.70

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 dividend yield of 12.58%. 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 payout ratio of 143.3% indicating that 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 $1.97 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 141.1%.

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE opened at $22.14 on Friday. BCE has a 1 year low of $21.87 and a 1 year high of $38.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $24.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.74. The firm has a market cap of $20.20 billion, a PE ratio of 184.49, a PEG ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.57.

BCE (NYSE:BCE) (TSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.03. BCE had a net margin of 0.99% and a return on equity of 17.89%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BCE will post 2 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BCE shares. Edward Jones lowered BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America downgraded BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of BCE in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “underweight” rating on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of BCE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.