Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 576,744 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 576,744 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc.’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $2,960,491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in Bank of Montreal by 179.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 282.8% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal in the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Bank of Montreal during the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in Bank of Montreal by 140.9% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 612 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BMO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target 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. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:BMO opened at $98.06 on Wednesday. Bank of Montreal has a one year low of $76.98 and a one year high of $106.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.05, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The business 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 is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.53%. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is presently 57.09%.

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.