DLJ, E*Trade Beat Estimates

Updated from 11:37 a.m. EDT

Investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ Quote) beat analysts estimates when it reported second-quarter earnings Wednesday, although profits declined from a year ago due primarily to a drop in junk bond underwriting.

Another securities firm, E*Trade (EGRP Quote), also announced earnings Wednesday. The second-largest Internet brokerage reported break-even results, on an ongoing operations basis.

For the quarter, DLJ reported net income of $162.2 million, or $1.15 per share. By comparison, in the same period a year ago DLJ's net income was $165.7 million, or $1.14 per share.

DLJ's total revenues for the second quarter of 2000 were $2.4 billion, or 31% higher than the $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 1999. Second-quarter net revenues, or total revenues minus interest expense, rose 9% to $1.6 billion.

"Given the industrywide weakness in new issue underwriting, particularly high-yield, we are pleased with DLJ's second-quarter results," Joe Roby, DLJ's president and chief executive officer said in a statement.

DLJ's financial services division led the firm in revenues and pretax profits during the quarter, with $567.2 million and $108.6 million respectively. A 55% rise in fees, mainly from mergers and acquisitions and merchant banking, to $514.8 million offset a 53% decline in underwriting income, the company said.

DLJ, a 40-year-old investment bank based in New York, employs about 11,300 people worldwide and has offices in 13 cities in the U.S. and 16 in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

E*Trade, based in Menlo Park, Calif., said its third-quarter net revenue was $330.3 million, up 77% from $186.4 million in the same period last year. It's earnings per share was zero on an ongoing operations basis, while it earned 2 cents per share on a reported income basis. It lost 8 cents a share in the same period a year ago. Its net income was $5.7 million, up from a $21.8 million loss in last year's third quarter.

Analysts had expected the company to lose a penny per share, according to market research firm First Call/Thomson Financial.

DLJ finished Wednesday regular trading down 13/16, or 1.7%, at 47 3/8, while E*Trade closed down 3/16, or 1.1%, at 17 3/4.