Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Natl Bk Canada

Natl Bk Canada cut shares of Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on BMO. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from C$168.00 to C$163.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Securities raised their target price on Bank of Montreal from C$170.00 to C$182.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. National Bankshares downgraded Bank of Montreal from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from C$173.00 to C$181.00 in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Raymond James Financial set a C$182.00 price target on Bank of Montreal and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$156.00 to C$165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$173.54.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of BMO opened at C$173.82 on Monday. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of C$121.31 and a 12-month high of C$182.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of C$176.23 and a 200 day moving average price of C$163.15. The firm has a market capitalization of C$124.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.38.

Bank of Montreal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 30th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is presently 55.74%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Alan Tannenbaum sold 9,824 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$175.12, for a total transaction of C$1,720,408.35. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal is a diversified financial-services provider based in North America, operating four business segments: Canadian personal and commercial banking, U.S. P&C banking, wealth management, and capital markets.