BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Bank Of Montreal $BMO

by · The Markets Daily

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in shares of Bank Of Montreal (NYSE:BMO – Free Report) (TSE:BMO) by 18.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 739,598 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 114,458 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Bank Of Montreal were worth $82,015,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank Of Montreal by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 6,997 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $668,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Bank Of Montreal in the first quarter valued at $336,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Bank Of Montreal in the first quarter valued at $52,070,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Bank Of Montreal by 0.4% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 70,318 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,714,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Bank Of Montreal by 9.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 259,852 shares of the bank’s stock worth $24,783,000 after purchasing an additional 21,499 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BMO has been the subject of several research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Bank Of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 6th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Bank Of Montreal in a research report on Friday, December 5th. CIBC upgraded Bank Of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. National Bankshares reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Bank Of Montreal in a report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Bank Of Montreal in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $163.00.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bank Of Montreal

Bank Of Montreal Stock Down 0.3%

Bank Of Montreal stock opened at $131.65 on Friday. Bank Of Montreal has a twelve month low of $85.40 and a twelve month high of $132.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $125.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.95.

Bank Of Montreal (NYSE:BMO – Get Free Report) (TSE:BMO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The bank reported $2.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.20. Bank Of Montreal had a return on equity of 11.76% and a net margin of 11.13%.The company had revenue of $6.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.51 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.90 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Bank Of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank Of Montreal Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th will be given a dividend of $1.67 per share. This represents a $6.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 30th. This is an increase from Bank Of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. Bank Of Montreal’s payout ratio is currently 58.58%.

Bank Of Montreal Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

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