American Century Companies Inc. Grows Position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 194,218 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 14,351 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Bank of Montreal were worth $18,855,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 179.5% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the period. Vision Financial Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal in the third quarter worth $45,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Bank of Montreal by 140.9% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 612 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BMO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. CIBC upgraded 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 report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Seven equities 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $95.26 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $69.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07. Bank of Montreal has a 52-week low of $76.98 and a 52-week high of $106.00. 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 fifty day moving average is $99.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $95.97.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, 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 announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.09%.

Bank of Montreal 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.