Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 498,232 Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 498,232 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $48,353,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BMO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,960,491,000 after purchasing an additional 576,744 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,709,215,000 after buying an additional 486,984 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,014,633,000. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 11.9% during 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 during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,208,431 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $505,643,000 after acquiring an additional 161,710 shares during the period. 45.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Up 1.2 %

BMO opened at $92.22 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $67.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.21, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.23. Bank of Montreal has a twelve month low of $76.98 and a twelve month high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.81%. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is 57.35%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BMO shares. CIBC lowered Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Cibc World Mkts cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.