Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Shares Purchased by Independent Advisor Alliance

Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,970 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BMO. IFP Advisors Inc increased its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 179.5% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 282.8% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the period. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Bank of Montreal by 140.9% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 612 shares of the bank’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $97.00 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $99.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $94.88. Bank of Montreal has a twelve month low of $76.98 and a twelve month high of $106.00. The company has a market capitalization of $70.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.90, 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.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.57%. Bank of Montreal’s 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.