Ameriprise Financial reported net income on Wednesday of $344 million, or $1.32 per share, for the third quarter compared to $260 million, or $1.00 per share, for the third quarter of 2009. Analysts estimated that the firm would earn $1.08 per share in the quarter.
Operating net revenues were $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2010, up 26% as a result of growth in asset-based fees driven by market appreciation, the acquisition of Columbia Management and retail net inflows.
"We generated record third-quarter earnings, driven largely by strong results in Advice & Wealth Management and Asset Management," said Chairman and CEO Jim Cracchiolo in a statement. "We're growing our core client base, and our advisor force is strong and increasingly productive. The integration of Columbia Management is proceeding well, and we are beginning to realize the benefits of the acquisition."
Revenues for the advice and wealth-management group were $946 million, up $832 million from last year.
Advisor Group
The company's number of employee and independent advisors was 11,608 as of September 30 – a drop of 6% or 706 advisors – since last September, when it had 12,314. In the second quarter of 2010, Ameriprise had 11,684 advisors.
With the current headcount, Ameriprise Financial is slightly smaller than LPL Financial, which has some 12,020 advisors.
Ameriprise attributed the drop in advisors primarily "to the continued departure of low-producing advisors," it said in a press release, adding that "advisor retention rates remained strong" at 77.8% for employee advisors and 93% for franchise advisors.
