Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, September 1, 2017

Article Excerpt

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA, $92.11, Toronto symbol RY, will increase its quarterly dividend by 4.6%, starting with the November 2017 payment. Investors will then receive $0.91 a share, up from $0.87. The new annual rate of $3.64 yields 4.0%. In its fiscal 2017 third quarter ended July 31, 2017, Royal’s overall earnings fell 3.4%, to $2.8 billion from $2.9 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share declined at a slower pace of 1.6%, to $1.85 from $1.88. If you disregard a gain on the sale of an insurance business in the year-earlier quarter, earnings per share in the latest quarter improved 7.6%. Even so, that missed the consensus estimate of $1.87 a share. Revenue fell 2.6%, to $10.0 billion from $10.3 billion. Earnings from Royal’s retail banking (which supplied 49% of the total) rose 5.8%, mainly due to gains at the bank’s Canadian operations. Its wealth management business (17%) reported 13.4% higher earnings as rising stock prices pushed…