Bank of Montreal (BMO) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 29th

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 1.1094 per share by the bank on Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th.

Bank of Montreal has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% per year over the last three years. Bank of Montreal has a payout ratio of 49.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Bank of Montreal to earn $9.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.49 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 0.9 %

NYSE BMO opened at $103.03 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $93.82. Bank of Montreal has a one year low of $76.98 and a one year high of $106.00. The company has a market capitalization of $75.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. Bank of Montreal’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BMO. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

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.