TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Raises Holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO - Free Report) TSE: BMO by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,653,260 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 176,715 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal makes up about 2.1% of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. owned about 0.36% of Bank of Montreal worth $256,728,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 70.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,923 shares of the bank's stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 2,455 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Bank of Montreal in the 3rd quarter valued at $45,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 326,510 shares of the bank's stock worth $30,773,000 after purchasing an additional 5,821 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 4.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,327,465 shares of the bank's stock worth $300,137,000 after purchasing an additional 144,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Passumpsic Savings Bank grew its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.1% in the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 5,142 shares of the bank's stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of BMO traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $95.05. 1,970,730 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 872,098. 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 1-year low of $76.98 and a 1-year high of $106.00. The company has a market cap of $68.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $96.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $96.33.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO - Get Free Report) TSE: BMO last announced 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. The business 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.1094 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. Bank of Montreal's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BMO. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. CIBC downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a "sector outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of Bank of Montreal from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Bank of Montreal from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal 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.