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

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 1.1094 per share by the bank on Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. 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 dividend payout ratio of 49.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 BMO traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $104.02. 392,353 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 615,474. Bank of Montreal has a 1-year low of $76.98 and a 1-year high of $106.00. The stock has a market cap of $75.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $98.79 and its 200 day moving average is $93.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $1.36. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.40.

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.