Toronto-Dominion Bank

Building profits with its financial information products since the crisis of 2008, Thomson-Reuters remains one of our top dividend stocks.

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $53 (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $95.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 3.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) recently agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to department store operator Nordstrom (New York symbol JWN) for its U.S. credit card portfolio. These loans total $2.2 billion U.S.; TD expects to complete the purchase by the end of 2015.

Separately, TD has agreed to become the exclusive issuer of Nordstrom-branded Visa and privatelabel credit cards.

Under the deal, which is similar to the bank’s March 2013 purchase of Target’s credit card portfolio, Nordstrom will keep receiving most of the earnings from its card operations. However, TD will also get a share, and it stands to benefit as more Nordstrom shoppers adopt the cards.

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Successful expansion in Ireland is just one reason Great-West Lifeco gets our nod as one of Canada’s top financial blue chip stocks.

Adding strength with timely U.S. acquisitions, Royal Bank and TD Bank bolster their status as solid blue chips stocks in a sluggish economy.

These two banks are making timely acquisitions south of the border. We feel these purchases will help both profit from an improving U.S. economy, while the lower Canadian dollar enhances these businesses’ revenue and profits. ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $76 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $106.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) continues to sell its less promising overseas operations as it shifts its international focus to the U.S., U.K. and Asia. For example, it recently sold its retail banking business in the country of Suriname, South America....

TD BANK $52.25 (Toronto symbol TD; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $97.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.8%; www.td.com) owns 41.01% of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (Nasdaq symbol AMTD), one of the largest online brokerage firms in the U.S. TD has announced that Ameritrade would contribute $92 million (Canadian) to its earnings in its 2015 third quarter, which ends July 31, 2015, up 21.1% from $76 million a year earlier. To put these figures in perspective, TD earned $2.2 billion, or $1.14 a share, in its fiscal second quarter, which ended April 30, 2015. Ameritrade’s average daily trading volumes rose 8.0% in the second quarter, mainly due to an increase in derivatives trading....

Our outlook on blue chip stock Manitoba Telecom as its shares begin to recover in the wake of a strategic review and network upgrades.

Pumping $27 billion into network upgrades helps keep Telus competitive in the telecom race we see it as a clear buy among blue chip stocks.

CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $204.48, Toronto symbol CP, continues to benefit from lower fuel prices and an aggressive cost-cutting plan, but the slowing economy is hurting its freight volumes and revenue. In the three months ended June 30, 2015, the railway earned $404 million, up 8.9% from $371 million a year earlier. Per-share profits jumped 16.1%, to $2.45 from $2.11, on fewer shares outstanding. These results exclude unusual items, such as a foreign-exchange loss on CP’s U.S. dollar-denominated debt. On that basis, they just missed the consensus estimate of $2.46. Revenue fell 1.8%, to $1.65 billion from $1.68 billion, also falling short of the consensus forecast of $1.68 billion....

BCE meets our “buy” criteria for blue chip stocks as it adds new services, speeds up its network and keeps its dividend safe and rising.