Updating our Conservative stocks Toronto-Dominion Bank, IGM Financial and Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Article Excerpt

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $43 (Toronto symbol TD) earned $3.8 billion in its fiscal year ended October 31, 2008, down 9.0% from $4.2 billion in the prior year. Earnings per share fell 15.1%, to $4.88 from $5.75, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude several nonrecurring items, such as integration costs of acquisitions. The drop was largely due to higher loan loss provisions, which grew 48.4% to $1.05 billion from $705 million. TD recently sold $1.4 billion worth of new common shares. That strengthened its regulatory capital ratios. Buy. IGM FINANCIAL INC. $31 (Toronto symbol IGM) reported that its assets under management fell 17.0%, to $102.2 billion at November 30, 2008 from $123.2 billion a year earlier. The drop was largely due to falling stock markets, plus net redemptions — including $103.7 million in November, 2008. However, IGM’s decline was less than the roughly 21% drop in assets under management for the entire Canadian mutual fund industry. Best Buy. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $11…