Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD)(NYSE:TD) stock was up marginally close to the noon hour on September 22 – up 0.20% at $69.15. Shares are now up 6.5% since the bank released its third quarter results on August 31.
TD Bank’s third quarter results capped off a great bank earnings season with the strongest of the batch. Profits shot up 17% to $2.77 billion or $1.46 per share. Canadian retail banking at TD climbed 14% to $1.73 billion and U.S. retail banking also saw a 14% increase to $293 million. TD Bank retained its dividend of $0.60 per share representing a dividend yield of 3.5%.
On September 18 TD Bank also completed the acquisition of Scottrade Bank for $1.4 billion, another institution in the U.S. This will serve to further improve TD’s U.S. footprint, already the largest among any Canadian bank.
TD Bank stock has now almost fully recovered from the CBC story in March that caused its stock to see its largest single-day drop since 2009. Since then the bank has released two straight earnings reports that beat analyst expectations. As the stock recovers the bank also finds itself in an improved economic climate compared to the early spring.
The housing correction appears to be stabilizing into the fall and Statistics Canada has reported some of the strongest GDP and jobs numbers the country has seen since the beginning of this decade. TD Bank stock still has a lot of room to run into the last months of 2017, this is a rock solid buy.
