While newly appointed LPL Financial CEO Rich Steinmeier and President Mike Audette (who also serves as CFO) briefly joked about the costumes they wore to a recent company Halloween event, they did not mention prior CEO Dan Arnold's Oct. 1 firing on the firm's third-quarter call with equity analysts late Wednesday. Arnold was asked to leave for violating LPL policies tied to "a respectful workplace."
At last week's party, Steinmeier dressed up as Elvis Presley, while Audette was decked out as Johnny Cash. The CEO posted photos on LinkedIn.
"Our focus is on creating the culture, workplace environment and capabilities, to achieve sustainable outperformance through becoming an indispensable partner to our advisors and institutions, while delivering long-term value to shareholders," Steinmeier said at the start of Wednesday's call.
On the earnings call, Audette said LPL plans to repurchase $100 million of its shares this quarter. He also disclosed that the firm recorded an $18 million charge in Q3 tied to a planned settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for anti-money laundering controls.
For the third quarter, LPL had adjusted earnings of $4.16, an 11% jump from the year-ago quarter and topping FactSet's forecast of $3.71. Total revenue was $3.11 billion for the third quarter, a 23% year-over-year increase that beat analysts' estimates of $3.04 billion.
The firm's shares rose nearly 2% in after-market trading Wednesday and were up 8% as of 10:30 a.m in New York on Thursday, trading near $286. While the stock is still slightly off its high of nearly $289 in June, its shares have recovered handily from a low of $193 in August.
Growth Story
Total advisory and brokerage assets grew 29% from last year and 6% from Q2 to hit $1.6 trillion.
The company had $27 billion in organic net new assets in the third quarter, representing a 7% annualized growth pace. Recruited assets were $26 billion in the latest period.
