The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Scotia Capital analyst Meny Grauman has upgraded his recommendation for Bank of Montreal to "sector outperform" from "sector perform." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Grauman's share target soared ahead by $13 to $160. Analysts on average target the shares at $138.93. BMO shares rose 4.2 per cent on Thursday despite reporting core cash earnings per share of $1.90, down 35 per cent year-over-year and 28 per cent quarter-over-quarter and falling 19 per cent below Mr. Grauman's $2.35 estimate and 20 per cent under the Street at $2.38. The miss stemmed from "much" higher-than-expected provisions for credit losses. Mr. Grauman says in a note: "In our first look on the quarter [released shortly after the report] we noted that the key to how the stock trades off a 20-per-cent miss to the Street will be almost solely dependent on management guidance on credit. Here we got encouraging signals during the earnings call that were more positive and clearer that what we heard after Q3's credit surprise. The bottom line is that management now has confidence that BMO's impaired PCL ratio peaked this quarter and will moderate through 2025."