ONLINE BROKERAGE TD AMERITRADE’S FISCAL FIRST-QUARTER PROFIT FELL 37% IN THE FIRST FULL QUARTER WITH FREE COMMISSIONS ON MOST TRADES. — Online brokerage TD Ameritrade’s fiscal first-quarter profit fell 37% in the first full quarter with free commissions on most trades.
The Omaha, Nebraska, based company said Tuesday it earned $379 million, or 70 cents per share, during the quarter ended in December. That’s down from $604 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier.
The company said one-time costs drug its earnings down 6 cents per share. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 77 cents per share.
TD Ameritrade agreed last fall to be bought by rival Charles Schwab in a $26 billion stock dealthat is expected to close in the second half of this year.
TD Ameritrade said its revenue fell 15% to $1.29 billion, but the company handled a record number of trades. The company averaged more than 1 million trades per day during the quarter, up from 927,849 a year earlier.
Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.3 billion revenue.
TD Ameritrade eliminated commissions on most trades in October, but it still collects a small fee on options contracts. Most of TD Ameritrade’s revenue — $958 million in the quarter — comes from asset-based fees it charges customers.
TD Ameritrade shares have risen 2% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $50.75, a fall of slightly more than 8% in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AMTD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AMTD
