UBS (UBS) said Tuesday that its second-quarter profit improved 32% to 690 million Swiss francs ($742 million), or 0.18 Swiss francs per share, from 524 million Swiss francs ($563 million), or 0.14 Swiss francs per share, a year ago. (In the first quarter, profits were 988 million Swiss francs–about $1.06 billion–or 0.26 Swiss francs a share.)
Sales across the company grew 15% year over year to 7.4 billion Swiss francs ($8 billion), though they dropped 5% from the earlier quarter.
"I am very pleased with our performance this quarter. The results show that our strategy is right, and we're ahead on execution," said Group CEO Sergio P. Ermotti, in a statement. "Every quarter since we set the strategy in 2011, we have executed it in a very clear and disciplined way building an unmatched capital position and delivering for our clients."
The non-U.S. Wealth Management operations delivered their "highest profit in four years excluding charges related to the Swiss-UK tax agreement and restructuring costs" while drawing "robust inflows," the company said.
Wealth Management Americas
The group's financial-advisor headcount grew by 34 from last quarter and by 78 from last year to 7,099.
Invested assets per financial advisors stand at $126 million, close to last quarter's results and up 11% from $114 million in the year-ago period.
Average annualized fees & commissions per financial advisor are $1,012,000–an improvement of 3% from $984,000 in the first quarter and up 12% from the second quarter of 2012.
