Bank of Montreal to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.11 (NYSE:BMO)

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of 1.1094 per share by the bank on Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th.

Bank of Montreal has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% annually over the last three years. Bank of Montreal has a payout ratio of 49.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Bank of Montreal to earn $9.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.49 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $103.03 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $99.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.82. The stock has a market cap of $75.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.76, a PEG ratio of 1.43 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 $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.