Updates on your Conservative stocks: Canadian Tire Corp. and Toronto-Dominion Bank

Article Excerpt

CANADIAN TIRE CORP. $143 (www.canadiantire.ca) is still a buy. The retailer has come under fire from U.S. hedge fund Spruce Point Capital Management, which claims the stock is overvalued by about 50%. Specifically, it feels Canadian Tire is losing market share to brick-and-mortar rivals Walmart and Home Depot, as well as online sellers. However, the company is beefing up its e-commerce operations and containing costs at its regular stores. both add value for investors. In another sign of confidence in its future, the company also just raised your dividend by 9.5%; the annual rate of $4.55 a share yields 3.2%. TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $73 (www.td.com) is a buy for investors. The bank earned $2.79 billion before unusual items in the three months ended October 31, 2019. That’s down 3.6% from $2.89 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings declined 2.5%, to $1.59 from $1.63. The earnings drop was mainly due to higher loan-loss provisions, which jumped 33.0% to $891 million from $670 million. That…