The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the news flow has been unkind to BCE ($44.75) over the past several weeks. The Globe's John Heinzl writes that in March, credit rating agencies S&P Global and Moody's both revised BCE's outlook to "negative" from "stable," citing the company's elevated debt ratios and intensifying competition among telcos. Both agencies maintained BCE's investment grade ratings, which are still a few notches above junk. However, they warned that a downgrade could occur if the company fails to make sufficient progress on deleveraging its balance sheet. BCE likely saw this coming. Even before the rating agencies put the company on notice, BCE has been taking measures to strengthen its finances. It recently slowed its annual dividend growth to 3 per cent from 5 per cent, announced 4,800 job cuts and scaled back capital spending plans. Separately, BCE's stock suffered another blow this week when BMO downgraded the shares to "market perform" from "outperform" and cut its price target to $46 from $54. BCE's sinking share price has pushed its yield up to about 8.9 per cent, stoking concerns about the sustainability of the dividend. BMO, however, believes the dividend is safe for now.