TIAA Trust National Association Acquires New Position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

TIAA Trust National Association bought a new position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,032 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,960,491,000 after purchasing an additional 576,744 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,615,141 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,709,215,000 after buying an additional 486,984 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 11,812,353 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,065,474,000 after buying an additional 1,534,508 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 14.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,046,721 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $455,397,000 after buying an additional 625,797 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 3,701,814 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $358,991,000 after acquiring an additional 248,096 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BMO shares. CIBC raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Montreal currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at $97.07 on Friday. Bank of Montreal has a twelve month low of $76.98 and a twelve month high of $106.00. The stock has a market cap of $70.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $99.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.72.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion during 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 was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.1094 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.57%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio 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.