Bank of America Corporation has reported first-quarter 2009 results that include Merrill Lynch, bought January 1, 2009, and Countrywide Financial, bought July 1, 2008. In the most recent three-months, BofA had net income of $4.2 billion and diluted earnings per share of $0.44 vs. net income of $1.2 billion and EPS of $0.23 a year earlier.
Merrill Lynch contributed $3.7 billion to net income, excluding certain merger costs, on strong capital markets revenue, the company says.
"The fact that we were able to post strong, positive net income for the quarter is extremely welcome news in this environment," explains Chairman and CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. "We are especially gratified that our new teammates at Countrywide and Merrill Lynch had outstanding performance that contributed significantly to our success."
In its financial statements, BofA reports that it now has 15,822 advisors worldwide vs. 1,952 a year ago. Annualized total revenue per advisor now stands at $808,000. BofA says its legacy advisors "historically have had higher amounts of credit and banking activity in their portfolios" and had yearly sales of $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2008.
Client balances in the Global Wealth Advisors segment stood at $1.3 trillion on March 31, 2009, up from $310 billion a year earlier – thanks to the $1 trillion in assets gained by the Merrill acquisition. (Client balances include deposits, AUM, client-brokerage assets and other assets in custody.)
The company also highlighted the following results:
