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Brett Gundlock/The Globe and Mail

Inside the Market's roundup of some of today's key analyst actions. This post will be updated with more analyst commentary during the trading day.

Bank of Montreal's Canadian retail banking revenue in its latest quarter was better than RBC Dominion Securities analyst Andre-Philippe Hardy had anticipated, but he was disappointed with the revenue growth in U.S retail banking.

As such, he maintained a "sector perform" rating, even while increasing his 2014 core cash earnings per share estimates to $6.45 from $6.35.

"We continue to believe that the shares of banks with better revenue growth will perform better in the next 12 months," he said.

Earnings in Canada rose 8 per cent year over year, with stabilizing margins, business volume growth and a decline in provisions all pointing to encouraging trends, noted CIBC World Markets analyst Robert Sedran. By contrast, U.S. earnings were up just 4 per cent year over year, as margin pressure was particularly fierce.

BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst John Reucassel also increased his 2014 cash operating earnings per share estimates, based on more stable margins in Canada and a solid contribution from wealth management.

"We expect another dividend increase next year as well as consistent buyback activity for the remainder of calendar 2013, which should make these shares particularly attractive to yield orientated investors, particularly those seeking some protection from rising interest rates," Mr. Reucassel said.

Target: Mr. Hardy raised his price target to $69 from $66, while Mr. Sedran hiked his target to $68 from $65 and Mr. Reucassel increased his to $69 from $65.

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RBC Dominion Securities analyst Stephen D. Walker downgraded Minera IRL Ltd. to "sector perform" from "outperform," concerned with liquidity pressures at the company as it moves forward with its Don Nicolas gold project in Argentina.

While the company has secured financing for Don Nicolas, "we see the longer-term effect of the financing as reducing potential future upside from any mine life extension or mine expansion from this large and very prospective property package," Mr. Walker said.

Target: Mr. Walker cut his price target to 40 cents from 75 cents.

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Infill drilling at St. Andrew Goldfields Ltd.'s Taylor project near Timmins, Ont., has returned some "impressive" high-grade gold results, said Stonecap Securities.

"We are now much more confident that Taylor can make a meaningful contribution to St. Andrew's production profile," Stonecap said.

"After the disappointing bulk sample from the 1008 lens during Q2/13, we had removed Taylor from our production profile," it said. "With these recent drill results, we have incorporated Taylor back into our model for the Holloway-Hislop-Holt mine complex; and our new model sees slightly higher production and lower costs with the inclusion of Taylor."

Target: Stonecap raised its price target to 50 cents from 45 cents and maintained an "outperform" rating.

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New Gold Inc. announced this morning that pit wall movement at its Cerro San Pedro mine in Mexico caused about 800,000 tonnes of material to move and mining in the area below where the event occurred has been suspended.

"Ideally, the company will find a way to resume mining in the area below the movement, but if this cannot be accomplished safely, then the company will need to access this area in the next phase of mining in 2014," commented Desjardins Securities analyst Michael Parkin. This could result in about 15,000 ounces of gold production being deferred from 2013 to future periods.

"We will review our model when we get more clarity on the situation, but we expect our net asset value and cash flow per share estimates (our two primary valuation metrics) to be mildly reduced based on this news," Mr. Parkin said.

Cerro San Pedro represents 6 per cent of his total net asset value estimate for the company and 32 per cent of gold production.

Target: New Gold remains a "top pick" of Desjardins, with a price target of $12.

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Workday Inc., a provider of enterprise cloud-based applications, reported "outstanding" results in its latest quarter that featured a 92 per cent boost in subscription revenue, noted BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Karl Keirstead.

"In our view, there wasn't anything in the numbers or commentary to suggest that Workday's strong momentum has changed," Mr. Keirstead said. "The subscription revenue guidance implies about 75 per cent to 80 per cent growth in the second half of fiscal 2014 and Workday said that fiscal 2014 billings could come ahead of its previous guidance of $530-million."

Target: Mr. Keirstead raised his price target to $75 (U.S.) from $70, but, citing the stock's already rich valuation, reiterated a "market perform" rating.

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For more analyst actions, breaking investing news and analysis, follow Darcy Keith on Twitter at @eyeonequities

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