More Comments & SP Adjustments * After resuming coverage following its $3.1-billion stock offering, Desjardins Securities analyst Doug Young raised his target for Bank of Montreal (
) shares to $163 from $161 with a “buy” rating, while Scotia’s Meny Grauman cut his target to $168 from $169 with a “sector outperform” rating. The average is $167.74.
“The issuance was not a surprise, as it was part of management’s initial financing plans for the Bank of the West (BoW) acquisition,” Mr. Young said. “However, the timing was earlier than we expected, leading us to slightly reduce our FY22 EPS estimates. We also took the opportunity to update our model, resulting in a slight increase in our FY23 EPS estimates.”