Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Canada's second-largest lender, said fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 1.3 percent as domestic retail banking and wealth-management earnings increased.
Net income for the period ended Oct. 31 rose to C$1.62 billion ($1.52 billion), or C$1.68 a share, from C$1.6 billion, or C$1.66, a year earlier, the Toronto-based lender said today in a statement. Toronto-Dominion said it earned C$1.90 a share after excluding some items, missing the C$1.99 average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Earnings were lifted by improvements in Canadian personal and commercial banking and gains in wealth management after adding contributions from its March takeover of New York money manager Epoch Holding Corp. for C$674 million. Toronto-Dominion has spent more than $25 billion on U.S. acquisition since 2004, building a network of branches that stretches from Maine to Florida.
The bank also announced a one-for-one stock dividend, which is effectively a two-for-one split of the common shares. The stock dividend will be paid out on Jan. 31 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 23. The quarterly cash dividend was also raised one cent.
