BMO gains at home and abroad

Article Excerpt

Over the past several years, Bank of Montreal has steadily built up its business in the U.S. and other countries outside of its core market. At the same time, it has strengthened its operations here in Canada with investments in its online and mobile banking platforms. We feel those moves will continue to spur the bank’s earnings and give it more room to keep raising its dividend. BANK OF MONTREAL $95 (Toronto symbol BMO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 645.5 million; Market cap: $61.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bmo.com) originally began operating in 1817, making it Canada’s oldest chartered bank. With assets of $727.9 billion as of January 31, 2018, it’s now the fourth-largest Canadian bank; it’s the eighth-largest in North America. Bank of Montreal currently provides a wide range of financial services to over 10 million customers from 900 branches in Canada and 600 in the U.S. Its Canadian retail banking operations supply 42%…