LPL Financial's net income in the period ending March 31 fell about 3% year over year to $53.1 million, though net revenue jumped close to 12% to nearly $1.1 billion. Adjusted earnings, though, rose 4% to $71 million, or $0.69 per share. Higher costs and lower recruiting results in the period were cited as reasons for the recent performance, and the company's executives are upbeat on results for the rest of 2014.
The independent broker-dealer's core general and administrative expenses were $162 million, up 11% year over year (but down 3% sequentially). Also during the quarter, the company's payout ratio to advisors grew 38 basis points to 86.4%.
The company has 13,726 affiliated advisors, up from 13,673 in Q4'13 and 13,377 in Q1'13. Advisory and brokerage assets rose to $447.1 billion, a 13.5% year-over-year increase, in the latest period.
Average fees and commissions per rep are about $252,000 vs. $254,000 in the prior period and $230,000 a year earlier. Average commissions as of Q1'14 stood at $156,000; excluding alternatives, this figure is $152,000, which represents a 4% jump from last year and a 1% increase from the prior period.
Assets under custody on its independent-RIA platform grew nearly 50% to $69.6 billion from $46.7 billion last year. These results include 265 independent RIA firms, compared with 199 independent RIA firms 12 months earlier.
The company says its fee-based business generated $4.4 billion in net new advisory assets. Average assets managed by advisors jumped 13.5% to $33 million per rep vs. $29.5 million a year ago.
Ameriprise
Ameriprise Financial reported first-quarter net income of $401 million, or $2.01 per share, up 19% from $336 million, or $1.58, a year ago. Operating net revenues increased 8% year over year to $2.8 billion, driven in part by strong fee-based business growth from client net inflows and increased client activity, the company says.
