Updating Our Income-Growth Payers

Article Excerpt

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $83 (Toronto symbol RY; Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.5 billion; Market cap: $124.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 4.0%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank with assets of $1.15 trillion. Royal recently paid $5.5 billion U.S. in cash and shares for Los Angeles-based City National. This firm lends to both wealthy individuals and businesses in the entertainment, technology and health care industries. Thanks to these new operations, Royal’s revenue in the three months ended July 31, 2016, jumped 16.2%, to $10.3 billion from $8.8 billion a year earlier. Earnings rose 7.5%, to $2.7 billion from $2.5 billion. Per-share earnings rose just 3.6%, to $1.72 from $1.66 a year earlier, on more shares outstanding. Royal set aside $318 million to cover potential bad loans in the latest quarter, up 17.8%, from $270 million a year earlier. That’s because low oil prices prompted it to increase provisions on loans to oil and…