Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, December 15, 2017

Article Excerpt

BANK OF MONTREAL, $100.63, Toronto symbol BMO, will now raise its quarterly dividend by 3.3%. Starting with the February 2018 payment, investors will receive $0.93 a share instead of $0.90. The new annual rate of $3.72 yields 3.7%. The bank purchased the transportation-financing operations of General Electric in late 2015. That business lends money to commercial truck and trailer manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada. Bank of Montreal is also spending more to enhance its online and mobile banking operations. Bank of Montreal earned $1.31 billion in the quarter ended October 31, 2017, if you exclude costs to integrate the GE operation and the costs associated with closing branches in its shift online. That’s a 6.2% drop from $1.40 billion a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share declined 7.6%, to $1.94 from $2.10. That missed the consensus estimate of $1.98. The lower earnings are mainly because the bank’s reinsurance business (part of its wealth management division) paid out $112…