Raymond James Financial Upgrades Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) to Moderate Buy

Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) was upgraded by equities researchers at Raymond James Financial from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on BMO. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$163.00 to C$178.00 in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$201.00 to C$218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$179.00 to C$183.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. National Bank Financial cut shares of Bank of Montreal from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$173.00 to C$181.00 in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Natl Bk Canada downgraded shares of Bank of Montreal from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$189.17.

Bank of Montreal Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of Montreal stock opened at C$192.17 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of C$136.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$184.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$175.94. Bank of Montreal has a 52-week low of C$121.31 and a 52-week high of C$198.68.

Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The bank reported C$3.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$9.34 billion for the quarter. Bank of Montreal had a net margin of 13.57% and a return on equity of 9.04%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Bank of Montreal will post 9.6514585 EPS for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Company Profile

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.