BCE Quarterly Earnings Decline

(RTTNews) - BCE Inc. (BCE) on Thursday reported net earnings of $625 million, or $0.69 per share in the fourth quarter, lower than $889 million or $0.98 per share in the year-earlier period.

The year-over-year decrease in earnings was attributed to higher expenses as well as a one-time gain of $211 million realized in the fourth quarter last year from the sale of Bell data centres to Equinix.

Excluding items, earnings were $692 million or $0.76 per share. On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.57 per share.

Operating revenues for the quarter increased 1.8% to $6.209 billion from $6.102 billion in the same quarter a year ago. The consensus estimate stood at $4.89 billion.

Looking forward, the company expects its revenue to grow 1% - 5% in 2022. Analysts see a revenue growth of 3.5% for the period.