The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that move over, Scotiabank, today's top laggard is TD. The Globe's David Berman writes that gains in its share price have trailed its peers by 53 percentage points over the past 13 months. TD is also a distant 26 percentage points behind the second-biggest loser, BMO. "We believe it will be difficult for TD to outperform its peers over the medium term, as it has limited strategic flexibility, lower earnings/dividend growth and significant cultural change coming," RBC analyst Darko Mihelic said in a recent note. Clearly, the case for TD's recovery is anything but rock solid. Over all, however, bank stocks are back. After slumping throughout much of 2022 and 2023, the share prices of Canada's Big Six have been on a tear for more than a year as fears subside over high interest rates, a weak housing market and stretched household finances. The group has rallied 44 per cent from its recent lows in October, 2023, easily outperforming the S&P/TSX Composite Index by 11 percentage points -- all while paying attractive dividends. Historically, less than 20 percentage points often separates them; the difference has grown as wide as 85 percentage points over the past 13 months.
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