Fifth Third Bancorp Grows Stake in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 93.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,840 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,856 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 415.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 28,567 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,395,000 after acquiring an additional 23,026 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 29,313 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,458,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 6.7% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 10,220 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $857,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 11.5% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 19,140 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,605,000 after buying an additional 1,969 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Bank of Montreal by 6.4% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,020,683 shares of the bank’s stock worth $85,588,000 after buying an additional 61,083 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BMO. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $133.00 to $161.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, CIBC raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $128.00.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:BMO opened at $99.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $72.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.27, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.09. 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 $104.63. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $97.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.57.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be issued a $1.1329 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 30th. This is a positive change from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. This represents a $4.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.55%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 63.18%.

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.