TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s (AMTD) fiscal second-quarter
earnings slumped 20% as a decline in fees for handling trades
weighed on the online brokerage's revenue.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Gerber called the operating
environment during the quarter "difficult," noting the e-broker
managed to improve its revenue from the previous quarter despite
near-zero interest rates and low intraday volatility.
Average daily client trades at Ameritrade totaled roughly
388,000 in the latest period, down from a year earlier, although up
from the previous quarter.
Rising optimism on the state of the global economy helped draw
retail investors back to the market in recent months, boosting
trading volume at the major e-brokers.
Ameritrade, which has in recent quarters made strides in
gathering new assets, also reported Tuesday it added $10.8 billion
in net new assets in the latest period, compared with $11.5 billion
a year earlier and $10.2 billion in the previous quarter.
For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported a profit of
$136.7 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier
profit of $171.7 million, or 30 cents a share.
Net revenue fell 6.3% to $673.1 million. Commissions and
transactions fees slumped 14% to $292.1 million.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 25
cents a share on revenue of $672 million.
Shares closed Monday at $18.78 and were inactive premarket. The
stock is up 20% since the start of the year.
-By Mia Lamar, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3207;
mia.lamar@dowjones.com