Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $1.36 EPS

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $1.36, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.56 earnings per share.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock traded down $0.88 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $103.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 294,933 shares, compared to its average volume of 613,141. The company has a market capitalization of $75.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $98.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.68. Bank of Montreal has a 12-month low of $76.98 and a 12-month high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be paid a $1.1329 dividend. This is an increase from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. This represents a $4.53 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 30th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.18%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BMO shares. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.40.

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.