Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$135.92.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. CIBC raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from C$134.00 to C$150.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$143.00 to C$148.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$147.00 to C$160.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from C$133.00 to C$161.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

BMO opened at C$140.41 on Friday. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of C$109.02 and a fifty-two week high of C$147.54. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$136.62 and a 200 day moving average of C$125.11. The firm has a market cap of C$102.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.16, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.16.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be paid a dividend of $1.59 per share. This is a boost from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 30th. This represents a $6.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.53%. Bank of Montreal’s payout ratio is presently 71.35%.

Insider Transactions at Bank of Montreal

In other news, Director William Darryl White sold 11,376 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$140.79, for a total transaction of C$1,601,592.91. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal is a diversified financial-services provider based in North America, operating four business segments: Canadian personal and commercial banking, U.S. P&C banking, wealth management, and capital markets.