DAVENPORT & Co LLC Acquires Shares of 28,981 Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

DAVENPORT & Co LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 28,981 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $2,813,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 11.5% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 19,140 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,969 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 13.5% during the third quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 10,463 shares of the bank’s stock worth $944,000 after purchasing an additional 1,247 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 23.4% during the third quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,908 shares of the bank’s stock worth $353,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 54.0% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,318 shares of the bank’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal during the third quarter worth $226,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BMO. StockNews.com downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $133.00 to $161.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” 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 issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of Montreal currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.00.

Bank of Montreal Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of BMO stock opened at $97.55 on Wednesday. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of $76.98 and a fifty-two week high of $104.63. The stock has a market cap of $71.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $98.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be given a $1.1329 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $4.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.65%. This is a boost from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 63.32%.

Bank of Montreal 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.