9,640 Shares in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Bought by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,640 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $936,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 59,465 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,842 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in Bank of Montreal during the fourth quarter worth $1,548,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 11,345.2% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 13,162 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 13,047 shares during the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 2,988 shares of the bank’s stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,913,716 shares of the bank’s stock worth $185,694,000 after purchasing an additional 64,799 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

NYSE BMO opened at $99.43 on Thursday. Bank of Montreal has a 12 month low of $76.98 and a 12 month high of $106.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.47 billion, a PE ratio of 14.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $99.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $1.1094 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.46%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with 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 “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Company 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.