Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Shares Sold by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC trimmed its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,543 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,560 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $4,128,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 179.5% in the fourth 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 raised its stake 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 valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the third quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in Bank of Montreal by 140.9% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 612 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BMO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cibc World Mkts cut Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, CIBC cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 1.1 %

BMO stock opened at $88.19 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $64.11 billion, a PE ratio of 12.63, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. Bank of Montreal has a 1 year low of $76.98 and a 1 year high of $106.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.27. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business’s revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be issued a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.03%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.