TD Ameritrade (AMTD) on Tuesday reported net income for the quarter ended March 31 of $189 million, down from $194 million a year ago, and earnings per share of $0.35, unchanged from the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting EPS of $0.35 to $0.36.
Revenues were $803 million, down from $812 million a year ago and below analysts' estimates ranging between $819 billion and $830 billion. A 3.1% decline in average client trades to 477,000 a day accounted for the drop in revenues.
The stock was down 1.65% in mid-morning trading to $35.83 a share.
TD Ameritrade CFO Bill Gerber, in the earnings call, spoke about the challenges to trading due to missed expectations about Fed policy on interest rates. Original forecasts called for a Fed rate hike in June 2015, and now that's been delayed until Sept. 15, according to Gerber.
Looking ahead, TD Ameritrade CEO Fred Tomczyk said the company expects EPS will come in at the lower half of the firm's guidance for the year, which ranges between $1.45 and $1.70 a share.
On the plus side, TD Ameritrade reported that net new client assets were $16.3 billion, up 34% year over year, and growing at an annualized grate of 10%. Client assets totaled $695 billion, up 13% from a year ago and fee-based investment balances overall rose 16% to $155 billion.
