U.S. expansion pays off for TD Bank

Article Excerpt

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $78 (Toronto symbol TD; Income-Growth Payer Portfolio; Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.83 billion; Market cap: $142.7 billion; Dividend yield: 3.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.td.com) is Canada’s second-largest bank after Royal Bank, with total assets of $1.32 trillion. TD gets 55% of its earnings from its Canadian retail business, which operates 1,100 branches. In the U.S., it has 1,238 branches along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. This business supplies 38% of its earnings. The remaining 7% comes from TD’s wholesale banking business; it offers securities trading and investment banking services such as stock underwriting. TD prefers annual dividend increases The bank now announces dividend increases annually instead of two or more times per year. It last raised its quarterly dividend with the April 2019 payment. Shareholders now receive $0.74 a share, up 10.4% from $0.67. The new annual rate of $2.96 yields a high 3.8%. The bank’s revenue jumped 29.6%, from $30.0 billion in 2014 to $38.8 billion in 2018 (fiscal years end…