HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys 278 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 5,376 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,014,633,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 11,812,353 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,065,474,000 after buying an additional 1,534,508 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter worth approximately $760,000. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 6,616,614 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $642,016,000 after acquiring an additional 704,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,960,491,000 after acquiring an additional 576,744 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Up 1.2 %

BMO opened at $97.59 on Thursday. Bank of Montreal has a 12 month low of $76.98 and a 12 month high of $106.00. The company has a market cap of $70.95 billion, a PE ratio of 13.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $99.11 and a 200 day moving average of $96.13.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be issued a $1.1094 dividend. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is 57.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BMO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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 shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. 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 raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, 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. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.