Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY Invests $214,000 in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY bought a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,200 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 44.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,103 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. REDW Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Bank of Montreal in the 3rd quarter valued at $200,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 190,255 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $17,760,000 after acquiring an additional 35,614 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Bank of Montreal by 72.9% in the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 588,209 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,082,000 after purchasing an additional 248,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.8% in the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 31,812 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BMO opened at $102.71 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $99.21 and a 200-day moving average of $94.05. The company has a market capitalization of $74.86 billion, a PE ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. 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 has a 52-week low of $76.98 and a 52-week high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a $1.1094 dividend. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on BMO. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.