Zacks Research Issues Pessimistic Forecast for BCE Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Research analysts at Zacks Research decreased their Q1 2025 EPS estimates for shares of BCE in a research note issued on Tuesday, February 25th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the company will post earnings per share of $0.64 for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $0.68. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for BCE’s Q2 2025 earnings at $0.69 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $2.75 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $0.66 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $0.66 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $0.67 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $0.67 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $2.65 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $2.68 EPS.

Several other analysts also recently commented on BCE. 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 research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on BCE from C$41.00 to C$37.50 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Scotiabank cut their target price 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 reduced their price target on shares of BCE from C$37.00 to C$35.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays downgraded shares of BCE from an “equal weight” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from C$41.00 to C$30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BCE presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$40.42.

BCE Trading Down 2.0 %

TSE:BCE opened at C$33.56 on Thursday. BCE has a 12 month low of C$31.43 and a 12 month high of C$50.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 226.73. The stock has a market capitalization of C$30.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.59, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$33.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$40.06.

BCE Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.9975 per share. This represents a $3.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.89%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. BCE’s payout ratio is currently 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.