TD sells Schwab stake

Article Excerpt

TORONTO-DOMINION BANK $86 is a buy. The lender (Toronto symbol TD; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.8 billion; Market cap: $154.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.td.com) merged its 43%-owned U.S. online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. with rival Charles Schwab Corp. (New York SCHW) in October 2020. TD now owns 10.1% of the combined firm. The bank now plans to sell its entire stake in Schwab for about $14 billion U.S. (or $20 billion Canadian). It will use $8 billion of that cash to buy back 100 million of its common shares (about 5.7% of the total outstanding). The rest of proceeds will help the bank with its plan to expand its Canadian banking, wealth management and insurance businesses in the wake of its deal to settle charges over lapses in the anti-money laundering processes at its U.S. retail banking operations. The stock has gained 12% since the start of 2025, and now trades…