Bank of Montreal Declares Quarterly Dividend of $1.11 (NYSE:BMO)

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of 1.1094 per share by the bank on Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th.

Bank of Montreal has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% per year over the last three years. Bank of Montreal has a payout ratio of 49.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Bank of Montreal to earn $9.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.49 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

NYSE BMO traded down $0.12 on Wednesday, hitting $104.02. 392,353 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 615,474. Bank of Montreal has a 12 month low of $76.98 and a 12 month high of $106.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $98.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $93.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.86, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $1.36. The business 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $128.40.

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.