Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the eleven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $128.40.

BMO has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Cibc World Mkts lowered Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. CIBC cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Bank of Montreal in a report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “sector perform” rating for the company.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of Montreal

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BMO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,997,776 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,960,102,000 after purchasing an additional 503,027 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,615,141 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,709,215,000 after buying an additional 486,984 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,833,065 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,244,284,000 after buying an additional 1,020,712 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,630,962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,014,633,000. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Bank of Montreal Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE BMO opened at $103.53 on Wednesday. Bank of Montreal has a 12 month low of $76.98 and a 12 month high of $106.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $74.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $95.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.17.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $1.36. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $1.1094 per share. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.35%.

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.