Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Downgraded to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

BMO has been the topic of a number of other reports. CIBC raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $133.00 to $161.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $128.00.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:BMO traded down $0.08 during trading on Thursday, hitting $100.91. 352,617 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 579,258. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of $76.98 and a fifty-two week high of $104.63. The stock has a market cap of $73.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.09. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $98.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $93.07.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of Montreal

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,960,491,000 after purchasing an additional 576,744 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Bank of Montreal by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,615,141 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,709,215,000 after buying an additional 486,984 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Bank of Montreal by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,833,065 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,244,284,000 after buying an additional 1,020,712 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 12,215,628 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,184,636,000 after buying an additional 1,630,962 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,014,633,000. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

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.