Toronto-Dominion Fourth-Quarter Profit Rises on Consumer Bank

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Canada’s second-largest lender, said profit increased for the fourth straight quarter as consumer banking earnings climbed in Canada and the U.S.

Net income for the fourth-quarter ended Oct. 31 rose 58 percent to C$1.57 billion ($1.54 billion), or C$1.69 a share, from C$994 million, or C$1.07, a year earlier, the Toronto-based bank said today in a statement.

Toronto-Dominion said consumer banking profit in Canada climbed 17 percent, and 19 percent in the U.S.

“They continue to execute on that growth strategy that they’ve put in place,” said Craig Fehr, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis. “We’ve seen them really branch out in more recent quarters into other areas outside of just the in- branch banking. So now they’re into auto lending in a really big way.”

Excluding one-time items, Toronto-Dominion earned C$1.77 a share. That exceeded the C$1.54-a-share average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Toronto-Dominion rose 5.6 percent to C$73.50 in trading yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares have fallen 1 percent this year.

(Toronto-Dominion will hold a conference call at 3 p.m. Toronto time. To listen, visit http://www.td.com/investor-relations/ir- homepage/financial-reports/quarterly-results/qr-2011.jsp on the Internet or dial +1416-644-3415 or +1-800-814-4859.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at spasternak@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net; David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.