And the forward warning that growing earnings will not be easy in the year ahead, Grant White, portfolio manager and investment advisor with iA Private Wealth, told BNN Bloomberg that TD is not an investment for now.
“I know a lot of people have been looking at this as perhaps a value opportunity, but I think this earnings report and the language that’s being used is exactly why we stayed away from this company as an investment option over the last year,” he said, adding that the bank will have a long way to go to rebuild investor trust.
Although he believes TD will be fine eventually, for now White says rebuilding trust is “going to be a process and it’s going to be a while, so this is one that I would steer clear of for a while as an investor because we just don’t know how far it goes, we don’t know how long it’s going to take and there’s a lot of work to do there.”
Quarterly results
TD’s fourth quarter results show reported earnings were $3.6 billion, up 26.8% compared with the fourth quarter last year, while adjusted earnings were $3.2 billion, down 8.0%.
“Despite a challenging quarter, we are pleased with the Bank’s underlying fundamentals, which were reflected in our revenue growth. This quarter, we delivered higher fee income in our markets-related businesses, volume growth in Canada, and stable deposits in the US,” said Bharat Masrani, Group President and CEO, TD Bank Group. “A key development this quarter was the resolution of our US AML matters, bringing important clarity to our stakeholders. Remediation is our number one priority, and we continue to make meaningful progress in addressing the failures.”
