By Adriano Marchese

BCE shares fell Thursday morning after the company said it now expects revenue to decline in the year, citing greater competition for mobile consumers in the telecom space.

Shares traded 4.7% lower to 38.18 Canadian dollars ($27.39).

The Canadian telecom giant downgraded its expectations for revenue to now decline by 1.5% in 2024. The gloomier forecast was brought down from a previous range of flat to a 4% rise.

Driving the decline is lower-than-anticipated product revenue and sustained wireless price compression over the past year, which has increasingly put pressure on mobile phone revenues.

In the third quarter, the company also logged operating revenues that fell 1.8% to C$5.97 billion, below analysts' expectations of C$6.04 billion, according to FactSet.

BCE has seen its shares buckle under pressure, most recently taking a big hit to shares after it announced earlier in the week that it had struck a roughly C$5 billion deal to buy regional broadband provider Ziply Fiber in the U.S. but that it would have to pause dividend increases to help revive its balance sheet.

The stock is currently trading nearly 27% lower than at the beginning of the year, and closer to 29% lower over the past 52 weeks.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2024 10:02 ET (15:02 GMT)

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