Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, raised its dividend for the first time in five years after posting third-quarter profit that climbed on added earnings from U.S. consumer banking.

Net income for the period ended July 31 rose 37 percent to C$970 million ($981 million), or C$1.42 a share, compared with C$708 million, or C$1.09 a share, a year earlier, the Toronto-based bank said Tuesday in a statement. Revenue rose 17 percent to C$3.88 billion.

Bank of Montreal increased earnings from its July 2011 takeover of Marshall & Ilsley Corp., the Wisconsin lender Bank of Montreal bought for C$4.1 billion in the largest acquisition in its 195-year history. The lender is integrating M&I into its Chicago-based BMO Harris Bank consumer lending unit.

Bank of Montreal said it had profit excluding items of C$1.49 a share, beating the C$1.38-a-share average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The lender raised its dividend 2.9 percent to 72 cents a share, the first increase of the quarterly payout since 2007.