Written by StockNews.com

Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) early Thursday [Mar 2, 2017 | 7:32am] posted market-beating fiscal first quarter earnings results, although assets under management declined on a sequential basis due to weak performance.

The Canadian banking giant reported Q1 EPS of CAD $1.33, which was CAD $0.06 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of CAD $1.27.

Revenues rose 5.9% from last year to CAD $9.12 billion, also easily topping analysts’ view for CAD $8.47 billion.

TD noted that average loan volumes increased 1% sequentially, while average deposit volumes rose 3% from the year-ago period.

Assets under management also gained 3% from last year, but actually declined 2% on a sequential basis from Q4, hurt by decreases in market value but bolstered by new asset growth.

The company commented via press release:

“We are pleased with our start to 2017. Our focus on organic growth, combined with favourable market conditions this quarter led to strong results in our retail and wholesale business segments on both sides of the border,” said Bharat Masrani, Group President and Chief Executive Officer. The Bank also announced a dividend increase of 5 cents per common share for the quarter ending in April and its intention to launch a normal course issuer bid to repurchase for cancellation up to 15 million of its common shares, which is subject to regulatory approval.

Toronto-Dominion Bank shares were unchanged in premarket trading Thursday. Year-to-date, TD has gained 6.57%, versus a 7.27% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

TD currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #3 of 43 stocks in the Foreign Banks category.