The Dividend is safeDGS bank holdings (61% portfolio) are all forecasting better then estimated earnings. The telecommunication, energy and utilities that make up most of the balance are all sector blue chip Canadian stocks. The future looks good. IMHO BUY LOW SELL IN RETIREMENT Comments please
TD, CIBC post higher profits
Bloomberg NewsDec 1, 2011 – 7:34 AM ET| Last Updated: Dec 1, 2011 2:26 PM ET
By Doug Alexander and Sean B. Pasternak
Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the first Canadian banks to report quarterly results, posted profits that beat analysts’ estimates on higher consumer lending.
Toronto-Dominion, Canada’s second-biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit rose 58 percent to $1.570billion, or $1.69 a share. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the fifth-biggest bank, said profit for the period ended Oct. 31 rose 59% to $794-million, or $1.89 a share.
The Toronto-based banks boosted earnings on higher revenue from consumer lending and investment banking, as Canada’s economy rebounded and home buying surged. Canada’s eight biggest banks will probably report average profit growth of 12% from a year earlier, Scotia Capital analyst Kevin Choquette said in a Nov. 18 note.
“The Canadian banks continue to do pretty much the right stuff,” David Baskin, president of Baskin Financial Services in Toronto, which oversees about $400-million including bank shares, said in an interview before earnings. “Everybody should be buying them, they’re really cheap.”
A rebound in the Canadian economy is boosting demand for mortgage and consumer loans at the country’s banks, ranked the soundest by the World Economic Forum. Canada’s economy grew at a 3.5% annualized pace in the third quarter, led by the biggest jump in exports since 2004, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The U.S. economy, in comparison, grew at a 2% annual rate in the period. Canadian spending on housing rose 2.6%, the fastest since the start of last year.
Tops Estimates
Andrew Barr/National Post
The earnings growth at Canadian lenders contrasts with their global peers, which have cut more than 200,000 jobs this year, eclipsing the 174,000 in 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Six central banks, including the Bank of Canada, yesterday lowered dollar swap rates to ease lending for European banks suffering from the sovereign debt crisis.
“If you look at the European situation, clearly that’s something that everyone worries about, in terms of the stability to financial markets, ultimately to the economies around the world,” Toronto-Dominion Chief Financial Officer Colleen Johnston said today in a telephone interview. “We’re optimistic when we look at our model and the strength of our model.”
Excluding one-time items, Toronto-Dominion earned $1.77 a share. That exceeded the $1.54-a-share average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. CIBC said it had adjusted earnings of $1.87 a share, topping the $1.80-a-share average estimate of 16 analysts.
Consumer Lending
Toronto-Dominion’s Canadian consumer profit rose 17% to $905-million because of higher revenue from personal banking and auto lending. U.S. consumer lending earnings jumped 16 percent to $328-million.
The TD Securities investment-banking unit profit rose 33% to $288-million while wealth management earnings, which include TD Ameritrade, rose 28% to $193-million.
CIBC’s profit was higher than a year ago, when earnings were pared by $239-million in capital repatriation costs and losses in a structured credit business. Revenue fell 1.6% to $3.2-billion.
For the year, CIBC said it earned $3.1-billion, or $7.31 a share, up from $2.5-billion, or $5.87 in fiscal 2010.
Higher Provisions
Andrew Barr/National Post
Canadian Imperial said it set aside $243-million for bad loans, up from $150-million a year earlier on higher provisions for its CIBC FirstCaribbean bank and its leverage finance business in Europe.
The CIBC World Markets unit earned $172-million, compared with a loss of $56-million a year ago when the unit posted losses from structured credit trading and corporate loan hedges. Revenue from corporate and investment-banking businesses more than doubled.
Canadian consumer lending and business banking profit rose 15% to $580-million on higher revenue in personal banking and business banking, and lower loan losses.
“CIBC, along with its peers, continues to face challenges in terms of domestic margin compression and headwinds to volume growth, but we believe that fourth-quarter earnings demonstrate success in the bank’s focus on its core domestic banking operations,” Barclays Capital analyst John Aiken said today in a note.
Wealth management profit, which includes mutual fund sales, rose 20% to $65-million after adding earnings from its purchase of a 41% stake in American Century Investments from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in August. Its corporate unit, which includes Caribbean banking, had a $23-million loss, compared with a $3-million loss a year earlier, the bank said.