Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO)

Banks as a group are cheaper than a year ago. Rich dividends. A cozy sector to be benefiting from. TD would be a favorite in the group. (Analysts’ price target is $80)

Banks in general have done well in Canada but not as well as in the US. CM-T had good results this morning. It is not reacting as well as it should do. Banks should do well into mid-April. If we get a couple of good earnings this season it will be quite positive for the banks. Banks are okay to get into now but he is not a big fan because of the level of indebtedness in Canada.

26% of its business is US retail and they own 41% of Ameritrade, which offers strength as well. It has pulled back, like all Canadian banks, and it is well-valued at this level. She expects TD to increase its dividend around the end of February, as they typically do in the the first quarter each year. (Analysts' price target is $79.78).

Buy at $69 200-day moving average, if TSX drops and holds at 14,500 (200-week moving average)? Yes, it's a good spot to buy.

One of the best run banks in Canada. If they owned banks (typically his funds don’t invest in them) this probably would be the one. They are a dominant player in Canada. And also, they did a good job growing in the US. Tax reform in the US benefits them.

(A Top Pick March 3/17 - Up 6.2%.) Still like it. Like the US operations. They have more branches down in the US than they have in Canada. The Canadian Banking system is more organized than the US. He thinks better results from the US operations with the US economy growing

One of his favourite. The better investment timing is when yields are closer to 5%. Don’t chase yield, however. He is looking more to US banks right now.

He likes the US business and thinks there is some upside there. The wealth management business is great. Higher interest rates will benefit their US business. Dividend yield of 3.2%. (Analysts' price target is $79.10.)

Announced a forthcoming $400 million write down on the US side of their assets. Some US banks took big write-downs because of the way they are being taxed. The US banks are the sector that benefits the most from tax cuts. They pay a lot of tax and their tax rates are going to go down a lot. In order to take advantage, there is some short-term house cleaning they have to do. The market realizes these are a one-time item so US banks literally have no impact from write-downs. Expects it will be the same for this bank. Going forward, there could be a pretty good surprise, as far as the impact on the tax changes for this bank. He would buy the stock here.

He is very positive. It has been his core bank holding for some time. The exposure to the US has been the main reason. About 50% of revenues come from the US. They will take a hit on next year’s earnings due to tax changes but then they will get a 20 or 30 cents benefit a quarter from their business. This still has a lot of legs.

(A Top Pick Jan 3/17, Up 17%) It is 50% US and Canadian retail is really starting to kick in. They will take a hit in the upcoming quarter in the US and then have ongoing 2-3% higher earnings going forward on the tax cuts.

The banking industry in Canada is an oligopoly, a very well governed, regulated and profitable one. The banks have outperformed the TSX in the last 18 of 25 years. This is one of the best of the pack. It has a great franchise in the US. Has a strong wealth management franchise. A good buy and hold candidate.

There are no Canadian banks he is interested in. They've had a phenomenal run. He can see how people might want to buy into the Preferreds. An area he is looking at more and more are preferred shares, as a defensive option. At some point, markets are going to get hit badly, and preferreds are a good place to go, especially if you can buy them under the issue price.

Long-term investors who have just held Canadian banks have made out like bandits. They’ve compounded rates of double digits and dividend growth, and he doesn't see that ending. Canadian banks should trade at more than 13X earnings. The overall market is trading at 19X earnings. He likes Canadian banks and feels you should overweight them in your portfolio.

Financials are part of the pro-growth theme. They like rising rates as it helps their spreads. Also, Canadian banks have a seasonality weakness from mid December to the end of January. However, seasonality is not all it is cracked up to be. We are currently in an uptrend, and the 1st resistance he would look for is $75. If it starts having issues around $75, that would be a good time to sell half.