15,948 Shares in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Acquired by Atria Investments Inc

Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 15,948 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,548,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 44.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,103 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN purchased a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the third quarter valued at about $210,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the third quarter worth about $2,686,000. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 10.2% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,897 shares of the bank’s stock worth $622,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the third quarter valued at about $355,000. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BMO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Scotiabank raised Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

NYSE BMO opened at $97.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.67. 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 fifty-two week low of $76.98 and a fifty-two week high of $106.00.

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 firm had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. Bank of Montreal’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be issued a $1.1094 dividend. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is presently 57.09%.

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.