The other four big banks also look strong

Article Excerpt

Bank of Nova Scotia is our top pick among Canada’s five main banks, but the other four also have bright prospects. Most are using their strong balance sheets to make profitable acquisitions at bargain prices. That should let them keep raising their dividends. ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $56 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $78.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is Canada’s largest bank, with $815.0 billion of assets. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently accused Royal of using a complex series of trades to cut its tax bill in Canada. Specifically, the CFTC says that divisions of the bank bought Canadian and U.S. dividend-paying stocks (plus futures contracts on these stocks) and quickly sold them to other divisions. These transactions would let Royal earn tax credits on the dividends it received from these holdings. The CFTC claims that this process was a wash trade, in…