Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, June 1, 2018

Article Excerpt

BANK OF MONTREAL, $100.26, Toronto symbol BMO, will raise its quarterly dividend by 3.2%, starting with the August 2018 payment. Investors will receive $0.96 a share instead of $0.93 for a new annual rate of $3.84. That yields 3.8%. Meantime, the bank earned $1.46 billion in its fiscal 2018 second quarter ended April 30, 2018. That’s up 13.0% from $1.30 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a faster rate of 14.6%, to $2.20 from $1.92. The latest results exclude unusual items. Among them is a $192 million (after-tax) charge related to Bank of Montreal investments in its online and mobile banking platforms as well as other elements of its restructuring plan. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.12 a share. Earnings from Canadian retail banking (40% of the total) rose 11.5% due to higher interest rates and loan balances. U.S. retail banking (19%) saw its profits jump 48.9%, partly because…