The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, November 27, 2009

Article Excerpt

BANK OF MONTREAL, $52.93, Toronto symbol BMO, earned $1.8 billion in its latest fiscal year, which ended on October 31, 2009. That’s down 9.7% from $2.0 billion in the prior year. Earnings per share fell 18.1%, to $3.08 from $3.76, on more shares outstanding. The latest earnings included several unusual charges. These include writedowns of securities the bank holds and severance costs from a 3% cut it made to its workforce. Without these items, the bank would have earned $4.02 a share in fiscal 2009. Analysts were expecting $3.98 a share on that basis. Revenue rose 8.4%, to $11.1 billion from $10.2 billion. That’s mainly because low interest rates continue to push up demand for mortgages and other loans. However, the bank set aside $1.6 billion for bad loans, up 20.5% from $1.3 billion in the prior year. Most of this increase came from its U.S. operations, particularly loans related to the commercial real-estate and manufacturing industries. The U.S. accounts for…