Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on BMO. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. CIBC raised Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $102.71 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $99.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a market cap of $74.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of $76.98 and a 12-month high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $1.1094 per share. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.18%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of Montreal

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,960,491,000 after acquiring an additional 576,744 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,615,141 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,709,215,000 after acquiring an additional 486,984 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,833,065 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,244,284,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,712 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 12,215,628 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,184,636,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter worth $1,014,633,000. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. It operates through Canadian P&C, U.S P&C, BMO Wealth Management, and BMO Capital Markets segments. The company’s personal banking products and services include deposits, mortgages, home lending, consumer credit, small business lending, credit cards, cash management, financial and investment advice, and other banking services; and commercial banking products and services comprise various of financing options and treasury and payment solutions, as well as risk management products.