Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) saw a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,180,000 shares, a decline of 41.8% from the February 13th total of 8,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 651,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 8.0 days. Currently, 0.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of Montreal

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. IFP Advisors Inc grew its position in Bank of Montreal by 179.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 282.8% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 333 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Bank of Montreal in the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. 45.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on BMO. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. CIBC raised Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank raised Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Up 2.2 %

Bank of Montreal stock traded up $2.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $97.00. 396,448 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 634,997. The business has a fifty day moving average of $99.43 and a 200 day moving average of $94.97. The firm has a market cap of $70.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.90, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. 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 12-month low of $76.98 and a 12-month high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its 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. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a $1.1094 dividend. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is 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.