The Big 5: RBC

The Merchants Bank of Halifax was founded in 1867 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its name was later changed to a "more comprehensive" The Royal Bank of Canada in 1901. RBC was Canada's largest bank by market cap for many years until TD stole the title this year.

Here is RBC at a glance as of December 13, 2011:

Symbol on TSX          RY
Current Close             $48.57
52 Week High            $61.53
52 Week Low            $43.30
EPS                             3.22
Annual Dividend         $2.16
Current Yield              4.44%

After calculating RBC's dividend payout ratio to be 67%, one might be worried about future dividend payouts. I think RBC will recover eventually seeing as the ratio was over 70% when I started writing the big 5 series. The following chart represents RBC's dividend growth from 2000 and into 2012.