GAMMA Investing LLC Buys Shares of 1,740 Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,740 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $164,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BMO. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 10.6% in the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 14,783,968 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,247,154,000 after buying an additional 1,417,298 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 14,495,589 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,435,002,000 after buying an additional 738,579 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 5.1% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 14,042,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,184,774,000 after buying an additional 679,340 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 1.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,191,193 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,294,121,000 after buying an additional 468,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in Bank of Montreal by 10.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,297,129 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $278,141,000 after buying an additional 301,391 shares during the last quarter. 45.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

BMO stock opened at $90.90 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $66.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.35, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.16. Bank of Montreal has a fifty-two week low of $73.98 and a fifty-two week high of $100.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) (TSE:BMO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The bank reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.24 by ($0.34). Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 11.89% and a net margin of 7.40%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.34 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 8.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $1.1172 dividend. This represents a $4.47 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.92%. This is an increase from Bank of Montreal’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BMO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Bank of Montreal in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Bank of Montreal in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of Montreal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.00.

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.