Aviva PLC Purchases 95,848 Shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

Aviva PLC grew its position in shares of Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) by 27.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 439,079 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 95,848 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC owned about 0.06% of Bank of Montreal worth $42,541,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,494,749 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,960,491,000 after purchasing an additional 576,744 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,615,141 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,709,215,000 after acquiring an additional 486,984 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 11,812,353 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,065,474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,534,508 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of Montreal in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,014,633,000. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 704,197 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BMO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. CIBC downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from $161.00 to $163.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts cut shares of Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

NYSE BMO opened at $89.27 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $64.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.95. Bank of Montreal has a 52-week low of $76.98 and a 52-week high of $106.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.21.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly 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. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company had revenue of $9.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. Bank of Montreal’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $1.1094 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.97%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.