Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Short Interest Update

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,520,000 shares, a drop of 59.0% from the October 31st total of 13,470,000 shares. Approximately 0.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 971,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Bank of Montreal

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 8,602 shares of the bank’s stock worth $776,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,581 shares of the bank’s stock worth $720,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Boltwood Capital Management increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 4,125 shares of the bank’s stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Bank of Montreal by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,580 shares of the bank’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Montreal by 34.6% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 623 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 45.82% of the company’s stock.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

BMO traded up $0.29 on Friday, hitting $95.25. 208,339 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 888,089. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $92.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.34. The firm has a market cap of $69.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. Bank of Montreal has a one year low of $76.98 and a one year high of $100.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported $2.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by ($0.12). Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 8.50%. The firm had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BMO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $123.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Securities downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Bank of Montreal from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $134.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of Montreal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.75.

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.