Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 14,584 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 140.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 24,958 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 14,584 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $2,422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2,701.7% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 30,454 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,747,000 after purchasing an additional 29,367 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Bank of Montreal by 80.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 125,572 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,344,000 after buying an additional 55,823 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 72.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 588,209 shares of the bank’s stock worth $53,082,000 after acquiring an additional 248,098 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Bank of Montreal by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,327,465 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $300,137,000 after acquiring an additional 144,252 shares during the period. Finally, Cardinal Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 4.9% during the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,298,627 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $117,326,000 after acquiring an additional 60,155 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $99.05 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $72.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $91.71. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of $76.98 and a 12-month high of $104.63.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 30th will be paid a dividend of $1.1329 per share. This is an increase from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. This represents a $4.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 30th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is 65.62%.

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.