CM vs RY: 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.

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 RY 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 RY 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

Royal Bank of Canada is the largest bank in Canada by assets and market value, and one of the largest banks in North America. It operates across five main areas: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management, Capital Markets, Insurance, and Corporate Support, serving individuals, businesses, institutions, and governments in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and globally. RBC deepened its dominant Canadian footprint by completing the roughly $13.5 billion all-cash acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada in March 2024, folding those clients into its personal, commercial, wealth, and capital-markets segments. The US-listed RY shares trade on the NYSE and mirror the Toronto-listed stock, giving American investors direct access to the franchise.

Full RY 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.
• RY drivers: Scale and diversification across banking segments; HSBC Canada integration and domestic dominance.

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 RY, as a bank, RBC's earnings are cyclical and depend on credit quality, so a Canadian recession, rising unemployment, or a housing correction could lift loan-loss provisions and pressure profit.

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; RY 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 RY 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.

RY. As of July 2026, RY trades around $211 per share on the NYSE with a market cap near $290 billion and a trailing P/E of roughly 19 times, a moderate multiple for a large, high-return bank. Second-quarter fiscal 2026 results were records, with net income of about $5.5 billion (Canadian dollars) and return on equity above 17 percent, though RBC reports in Canadian dollars so US-dollar returns also move with the exchange rate.

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; RY shows revenue (ttm) ~$62B CAD, q2 fy2026 net income ~$5.5B CAD, q2 fy2026 diluted eps ~$3.85 CAD, return on equity ~17.2%.

CM and RY 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 RY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.