Legal & General Group Plc Sells 1,140,833 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 21.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,244,870 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,140,833 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.58% of Bank of Montreal worth $411,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in Bank of Montreal by 179.5% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 282.8% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new position in Bank of Montreal during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the third quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in Bank of Montreal by 140.9% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 612 shares of the bank’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. 45.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com raised Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. CIBC downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at $88.19 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $98.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $96.27. The company has a market cap of $64.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of $76.98 and a 12-month high of $106.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.03%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.09%.

Bank of Montreal Company Profile

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.