Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Lowers Stock Holdings in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its position in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,608,452 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 23,166 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned 0.22% of Bank of Montreal worth $156,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 4th quarter valued at $1,014,633,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in Bank of Montreal by 14.9% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 11,812,353 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,065,474,000 after buying an additional 1,534,508 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,297,626 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $422,450,000 after buying an additional 975,777 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at about $760,000. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Bank of Montreal by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 6,616,614 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $642,016,000 after acquiring an additional 704,197 shares during the period. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

Bank of Montreal stock opened at $89.27 on Friday. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of $76.98 and a fifty-two week high of $106.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.15. 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 stock has a market cap of $64.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $1.36. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be paid a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is 57.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BMO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. CIBC cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. 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 shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

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.