TD keeps expanding in the U.S.

Article Excerpt

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $73 (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $138.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) is Canada’s second-largest bank with assets of $1.2 trillion. TD continues to expand in the U.S.; that country now supplies 31% of its total earnings. The bank and 42%-owned TD Ameritrade (Nasdaq symbol AMTD) recently completed their acquisition of Scottrade Bank. That privately held firm offers retail banking and discount brokerage services. Under the terms of the deal, TD Bank acquired Scottrade’s banking operations for $1.3 billion U.S. Ameritrade paid $2.7 billion U.S. in cash and shares for Scottrade’s brokerage operations. Thanks partly to the Scottrade purchase, Ameritrade will contribute $103 million (Canadian) to TD’s earnings for the 2017 fourth quarter, ending October 31, 2017. That will contribute to the gain of 10.8% from $93 million a year earlier. To put those figures in perspective, TD earned $2.9 billion, or $1.51 a..