Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Stock Rating Lowered by Cibc World Mkts

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Cibc World Mkts from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on BMO. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on 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 upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, CIBC cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Down 7.1 %

Shares of NYSE BMO opened at $89.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $98.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.15. Bank of Montreal has a 52 week low of $76.98 and a 52 week high of $106.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 5,407.5% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,919 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,866 shares during the period. Avant Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at about $202,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 162,503 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,768,000 after acquiring an additional 36,931 shares during the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 4th quarter worth about $346,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,630,962 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.