BCE FY2025 EPS Forecast Increased by National Bank Financial

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Equities researchers at National Bank Financial boosted their FY2025 EPS estimates for shares of BCE in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, March 26th. National Bank Financial analyst A. Shine now anticipates that the company will earn $2.78 per share for the year, up from their prior estimate of $2.70. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BCE. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on BCE from C$42.00 to C$40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. National Bankshares lifted their price target on BCE from C$35.00 to C$36.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on BCE from C$33.00 to C$33.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays lowered shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of BCE from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from C$35.00 to C$29.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BCE has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$40.50.

BCE Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.63 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of C$29.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. BCE has a 52-week low of C$31.43 and a 52-week high of C$49.13. The company’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 quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73.

BCE Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.23%. 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.