Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC Buys Shares of 2,075 Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Riverpoint Wealth Management Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 2,075 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position 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 worth $68,786,000 after acquiring an additional 40,135 shares in the last quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter worth about $224,000. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 282.8% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 179.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,220,000. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BMO. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” 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. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $133.00 to $161.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.00.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

BMO stock opened at $104.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $98.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.68. 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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. Bank of Montreal’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.1329 per share. This represents a $4.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 30th. This is an increase from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 63.18%.

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.