Scotiabank Has Negative Estimate for BCE FY2025 Earnings

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) – Equities researchers at Scotiabank cut their FY2025 EPS estimates for shares of BCE in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank analyst M. Yaghi now forecasts that the company will earn $2.80 per share for the year, down from their prior forecast of $2.87. Scotiabank currently has a “Sector Perform” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for BCE’s current full-year earnings is $3.11 per share.

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

BCE Stock Performance

Shares of BCE stock opened at C$32.20 on Monday. The company has a market cap of C$29.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 108.03, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The business has a 50 day moving average of C$33.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$38.28. BCE has a 52 week low of C$31.43 and a 52 week high of C$49.13. 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 company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.9975 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.39%. BCE’s payout ratio is 1,338.57%.

BCE Company Profile

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.