Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Short Interest Down 41.8% in February

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) saw a significant drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,180,000 shares, a drop of 41.8% from the February 13th total of 8,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 651,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 8.0 days. Currently, 0.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of Montreal

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bank of Montreal by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 6,897 shares of the bank’s stock worth $622,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 3rd quarter worth $355,000. Curi RMB Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of Montreal during the 3rd quarter worth $204,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 30,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,795,000 after buying an additional 2,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Bank of Montreal by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 3,667 shares of the bank’s stock worth $331,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

NYSE:BMO opened at $97.00 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $99.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $94.97. Bank of Montreal has a 1-year low of $76.98 and a 1-year high of $106.00. 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 firm has a market cap of $70.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.07.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The bank reported $3.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. Bank of Montreal’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bank of Montreal will post 7.71 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 29th will be given a $1.1094 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $4.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.57%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. CIBC raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a 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 report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Scotiabank raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Montreal has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.40.

Bank of Montreal Company 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.