Mariner LLC Buys 3,709 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Mariner LLC grew its stake in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO - Free Report) TSE: BMO by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,178 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 3,709 shares during the period. Mariner LLC's holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $4,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BMO. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 708,767 shares of the bank's stock valued at $68,786,000 after acquiring an additional 40,135 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 194,218 shares of the bank's stock valued at $18,855,000 after purchasing an additional 14,351 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,913,716 shares of the bank's stock worth $185,694,000 after buying an additional 64,799 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 58.4% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,618 shares of the bank's stock worth $448,000 after buying an additional 1,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Korea Investment CORP lifted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 478,191 shares of the bank's stock valued at $46,399,000 after buying an additional 12,052 shares during the period. 45.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BMO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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 World Mkts downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. CIBC cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a "sector outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

NYSE BMO traded down $0.44 during trading on Friday, hitting $94.99. 1,688,862 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 686,962. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $96.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.30. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of $76.98 and a fifty-two week high of $106.00. 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 market cap of $68.78 billion, a PE ratio of 13.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO - Get Free Report) TSE: BMO last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.56 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be issued a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.67%. Bank of Montreal's payout ratio is 57.35%.

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.