Updating Royal Bank of Canada and Fortis Inc.

Article Excerpt

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $75 (www.rbc.com) earned $9.9 billion in its 2015 fiscal year, which ended October 31, 2015, up 8.6% from $9.1 billion in fiscal 2014. Earnings per share gained 9.4%, to $6.66 from $6.09, on fewer shares outstanding. Strong gains at its retail banking, securities trading and custodial operations offset weaker results at the wealth management and insurance operations. Royal recently completed its $5.4-billion U.S. cash-and-stock purchase of Los Angeles-based bank City National, which specializes in serving wealthy individuals and loaning money to businesses in the entertainment, technology and health care industries. It will probably take two years for City National to start contributing to Royal’s earnings. Buy. FORTIS INC. $36 (www.fortisinc.com) has agreed to buy Chevron Corp.’s 93.8% stake in the Aitken Creek underground gas storage facility in northeastern B.C.; BP Canada owns the remaining 6.2%. Fortis will pay $266 million U.S. when it completes the purchase in early 2016. To put that in context, the company…