The Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada financial statements for their years ended October 31, 2017, can be found on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). 

Instructions 

a. What is the average carrying amount of each company's common shares? Compare these values with market prices. What stock exchanges do these banks trade on? 

b. What is the authorized share capital of each company? 

c. Comment on how each company presents its shareholders' equity on the balance sheet and the statement of changes in equity. Comment on the presentation of the various items on both statements and the formats used. 

d. Describe the changes (number of shares and price) in each company's common share accounts over the past three years. What types of activities are contributing to the changes? 

e. What amounts of cash dividends per share were declared by each company during the fiscal 2017 year? What was the total dollar effect of the cash dividends on each company's shareholders' equity? 

f. What is each company's rate of return on common shareholders' equity for the 2017 fiscal year? Which company has the higher return on its common shareholders' equity?