HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Has $535,000 Stock Position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. 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 also recently modified their holdings of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Bank of Montreal by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 334,333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,416,000 after purchasing an additional 7,823 shares during the last quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. raised its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 137.2% during the fourth quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. now owns 30,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,999,000 after acquiring an additional 17,875 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 162,503 shares of the bank’s stock worth $15,768,000 after acquiring an additional 36,931 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 153,570 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,893,000 after acquiring an additional 10,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 7,640 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $752,000 after acquiring an additional 2,897 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BMO. 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, CIBC raised Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Seven 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:BMO opened at $97.59 on Thursday. 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. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $99.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.13. The firm has a market cap of $70.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.98, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07.

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. 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%. Bank of Montreal’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. As a group, 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 announced 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. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is presently 57.09%.

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.