TD Ameritrade's Profit Falls Short
TD Ameritrade
(AMTD) - Get Report
said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit dropped 14% from a year ago and fell just short of expectations, but revenue and trading activity rose.
The Omaha, Neb.-based Internet securities brokerage said it had net income of $172 million, or 29 cents a share, in the quarter, down from $200.4 million, or 33 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
However, TD Ameritrade said net revenue increased nearly 13% from last year to $649.2 million and was up 4% sequentially. The company said 58% of net revenue were asset-based, and that average client trades per day totaled 316,000, an increase of 14%.
On average, analysts expected TD Ameritrade to notch a profit of 30 cents a share on revenue of $605.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters. After falling 7% during Wednesday's session, shares of TD Ameritrade were lately up 1%.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2009, TD Ameritrade said it expects earnings to fall in a range between $1.10 and $1.42 a share. Wall Street is forecasting full-year earnings of $1.33 a share.
"We have a strong, stable balance sheet and a successful business model that allow us to improve our competitive standing, despite the challenging environment," said CEO Fred Tomczyk in a statement. "We are looking forward to 2009 and coming out of this cycle a stronger and better positioned company."
On the downside, the company recorded fiscal 2008 earnings of $1.33 a share, falling 2 cents short of the average analyst target.
Among its rivals,
E*Trade
(ETFC) - Get Report
was slipping 1.3% in early trading, while
Charles Schwab
(SCHW) - Get Report
was flat.