Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.46 EPS

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) announced its earnings results on Tuesday. The bank reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.46, Zacks reports. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 9.22%.

Bank of Montreal Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at $99.80 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $93.52. The stock has a market cap of $72.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.09. Bank of Montreal has a 1-year low of $76.98 and a 1-year high of $104.63.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 30th will be paid a $1.1329 dividend. This represents a $4.53 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.54%. This is a positive change from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 30th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on BMO. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $133.00 to $161.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut Bank of Montreal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, CIBC raised Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of Montreal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.00.

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.