BCE (TSE:BCE) Stock Price Down 7.9% – Time to Sell?

BCE Inc. (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) traded down 7.9% on Monday . The stock traded as low as C$40.40 and last traded at C$41.28. 1,954,820 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average session volume of 2,922,259 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$44.81.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BCE. Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of BCE from C$48.00 to C$51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on BCE from C$48.00 to C$51.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on BCE from C$53.00 to C$52.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on BCE from C$46.00 to C$47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered BCE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$50.36.

BCE Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$36.90 billion, a PE ratio of 19.20, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 197.43, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$46.73.

BCE (TSE:BCE) (NYSE:BCE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported C$0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$0.80 by C($0.02). The company had revenue of C$6.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$6.07 billion. BCE had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 8.75%. Analysts forecast that BCE Inc. will post 3.1120864 earnings per share for the current year.

BCE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.998 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.99 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.87%. BCE’s payout ratio is 185.58%.

About BCE

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.