Canada’s other 4 big banks are also buys

Article Excerpt

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $52 (Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $72.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 3.8%; SI Rating: Above Average) is Canada’s largest bank, with total assets of $655.1 billion. In the three months ended April 30, 2010, Royal earned $1.3 billion, or $0.88 a share. That’s a big improvement over the $50 million, or $0.07 a share, it lost a year earlier. The year-earlier loss was mainly caused by a $1-billion writedown of goodwill related to U.S. banks that Royal had purchased. Without this charge, Royal would have earned $950 million, or $0.63 a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 3.0% in the most recent quarter, to $7.0 billion from $6.8 billion. Royal’s international operations account for roughly 10% of its revenue, and the stronger Canadian dollar cut their contribution by $534 million. The higher dollar also lowered the bank’s earnings by $0.06 a share. However, Royal is…