Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Royal Bank of Canada Analyst Says

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) had its price target raised by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $161.00 to $163.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the bank’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 56.92% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

BMO stock traded down $0.27 on Wednesday, reaching $103.88. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 217,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 610,600. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $98.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $75.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. Bank of Montreal has a 52 week low of $76.98 and a 52 week high of $106.00.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $9.27 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Bank of Montreal

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMO. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of Montreal during the fourth quarter valued at $346,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 12,215,628 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,184,636,000 after purchasing an additional 1,630,962 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP raised its position in Bank of Montreal by 45.3% during the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 7,958 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $772,000 after acquiring an additional 2,481 shares in the last quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,422 shares of the bank’s stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at about $165,000. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

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.