Wells Fargo & Company MN Boosts Holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 471.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 452,086 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 372,977 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned 0.06% of Bank of Montreal worth $43,866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Passumpsic Savings Bank boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 5,142 shares of the bank’s stock worth $464,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,865 shares of the bank’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 6,355 shares of the bank’s stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 3,185 shares of the bank’s stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,049 shares of the bank’s stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BMO. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. CIBC downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Up 4.9 %

BMO stock opened at $91.81 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $66.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.15, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. 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 has a 12 month low of $76.98 and a 12 month high of $106.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $97.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.18.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.83%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.09%.

Bank of Montreal 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.