Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) reported Tuesday a profit for the fourth quarter that grew from last year, reflecting higher net new assets and growth in asset-based revenues.
Both earnings per share and quarterly revenues topped analysts' expectations. The company also provided earnings guidance for the full-year 2015, in line with Street view.
Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade reported net income of $211 million or $0.38 per share for the fourth quarter, higher than $200 million or $0.36 per share in the prior-year quarter.
On average, 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.36 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net revenues for the quarter grew to $795 million from $709 million in the same quarter last year, and topped seventeen Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $771.57 million.
At the end of the fourth quarter, TD Ameritrade had about $653.1 billion in total client assets, up 17 percent from $555.9 billion reported at the end of the year-ago quarter.
Commissions and transaction fees grew to $332 million from the year-ago quarter's $306 million, while total asset-based revenues increased to $450 million from last year's $387 million.
During the quarter, the company said net new client assets totaled about $13.4 billion, an annualized growth rate of 8 percent, up from $10.1 billion at the end of the year-ago quarter. Average client trades per day for the quarter was about 403,000, an activity rate of 6.4 percent.
The company also declared a 25 percent higher quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share, payable on November 20 to all holders of record of common stock as of November 6, 2014.
"With improved investor sentiment, retail investors returned to the markets in 2014, increasing engagement across our platforms and boosting trading volumes. Asset gathering remained strong, as we gathered a record $53 billion of net new client assets, our sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth. In fact, over the last five years, we have gathered a total of $219 billion of net new client assets, one-third of our total client assets," President and CEO Fred Tomczyk said in a statement.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2015, the company expects earnings in a range of $1.45 to $1.70 per share. Street is looking for full-year 2015 earnings of $1.61 per share.
Separately, Canadian lender TD Bank Group (TD, TD.TO) said it expects TD Ameritrade's fourth-quarter earnings to translate into a contribution of about C$84 million to the fourth quarter net income for the bank, which will be reported under International Financial Reporting Standards.
TD Bank Group will release its fourth-quarter financial results on December 4, 2014.
AMTD closed Monday's regular trading session at $31.31, up $0.06 on a volume of 2.91 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $27.15 to $35.82.
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