Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) Cut to Hold at Natl Bk Canada

Natl Bk Canada cut shares of Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. National Bankshares lowered shares of Bank of Montreal from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from C$173.00 to C$181.00 in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$157.00 to C$177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. CIBC raised their target price on Bank of Montreal from C$180.00 to C$192.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Bank of Montreal from C$173.00 to C$181.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Desjardins increased their price objective on Bank of Montreal from C$156.00 to C$165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of Montreal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$173.54.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BMO opened at C$177.02 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$176.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$163.47. Bank of Montreal has a 52 week low of C$121.31 and a 52 week high of C$182.90. The stock has a market cap of C$126.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.38.

Bank of Montreal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 26th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 30th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. Bank of Montreal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Alan Tannenbaum sold 9,824 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$175.12, for a total transaction of C$1,720,408.35. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.