CM vs D: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: CM is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. CM and D share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined CM and D exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, founded in 1867 and run out of CIBC Square in Toronto, banks roughly 15 million personal, business, public-sector and institutional clients. Reporting today splits into Canadian Personal and Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, Capital Markets and Direct Financial Services, plus a Corporate and Other bucket. The balance sheet held ~C$832.8 billion of deposits and ~C$358.4 billion of risk-weighted assets at April 30, 2026, alongside ~C$4.15 trillion of assets under administration and ~C$455 billion under management. Harry Culham became president and chief executive in 2025, and in May 2026 the bank reshuffled its leadership and agreed to sell its 91.67% stake in CIBC Caribbean to Bermuda's Bank of N.T. Butterfield for ~US$1.645 billion, taking US$1 billion in cash and a ~22% equity stake in the buyer. One quirk to keep straight: the fiscal year ends October 31, so quarters are reported on a December, February, May and August cycle.

Full CM guide

Dominion Energy is one of the largest regulated utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to roughly 3.6 million homes and businesses across Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and regulated natural gas to customers in South Carolina. As a rate-regulated utility, it earns most of its money by investing in generation, poles, wires, and pipes and recovering those costs plus an allowed return through rates approved by state regulators, which makes its cash flows far steadier and more predictable than a commodity producer's. Its home territory sits at the center of the world's largest data-center market in Northern Virginia, and Dominion has said contracted data-center capacity now exceeds 48 gigawatts as customers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta expand AI and cloud workloads. To serve that demand and its clean-energy goals, Dominion has laid out a roughly $50 billion five-year capital plan, including its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, a 2.6-gigawatt, 176-turbine build that was more than 75% complete in 2026 and has begun delivering power to customers.

Full D guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• CM drivers: Margin expansion in the Canadian retail bank; Redeploying capital into the US franchise.
• D drivers: Data-center-driven load growth; Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: CIBC carries the heaviest relative exposure to Canadian residential mortgages of the country's large banks, and gross impaired loans reached ~C$3,967 million at April 30, 2026, up ~C$672 million from a year earlier, with the loan loss ratio at 0.38%. For D, the biggest single risk is deal risk: with a large all-stock merger pending, the share price is tied to the transaction closing on its stated terms and to NextEra's stock, and antitrust, FERC, NRC, or state-commission conditions (or an outright block) could delay, reshape, or unwind it.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick CM if you believe its drivers more; D if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the CM and D guides.

CM. Every figure CIBC reports is in Canadian dollars, so screeners that print a CAD revenue line next to a USD market cap will look wrong by roughly 39%. Trailing revenue and EPS above are the sum of the four filed quarters through April 30, 2026, which includes a one-time ~C$422 million tax recovery in the January quarter worth ~C$0.45 of reported EPS. Banks are better judged on net interest margin, return on equity, CET1 and provisions than on a revenue multiple, and the next print, third-quarter fiscal 2026, is scheduled for August 27, 2026.

D. These points are qualitative and tied to the asOf date; verify live figures before acting. Because a large all-stock merger is pending, standard valuation multiples matter less than the exchange ratio and the odds of the deal closing: Dominion shares should broadly track roughly 0.8138 times NextEra's price, adjusted for cash terms and deal risk. If you are evaluating income, base any dividend expectation on the latest declared payout and on the combined company's stated policy, not on historical assumptions.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): CM shows revenue (ttm to apr 30, 2026) ~C$31.2B (~US$22.5B at ~0.72 USD per CAD), latest quarter (q2 fy2026, ended apr 30, 2026) Revenue ~C$8,006M, +14% YoY; net income ~C$2,465M, +23%, diluted eps (ttm) ~C$10.09 reported; adjusted Q2 EPS ~C$2.54, profitability and capital ROE 16.4%, CET1 13.6%, NIM 1.67%, efficiency ratio 52.4%, PCL ~C$605M; D shows business model Regulated electric utility (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina) plus regulated gas in South Carolina; rate-regulated, defensive cash flows, pending merger All-stock combination with NextEra Energy agreed May 2026, ~0.8138 NextEra shares per D share plus one-time cash; implied deal value ~$67 billion; ~12-18 months to close, capital plan Roughly $50 billion five-year plan, with a large share tied to data-center load growth and clean energy; verify current figure, data-center demand Contracted capacity said to exceed 48 gigawatts in the world's largest data-center market.

CM and D are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined CM and D exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.