optionsXpress Announces Record First Quarter 2006 Results
biz.yahoo.com
Friday April 21, 7:30 am ET
CHICAGO, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: OXPS) today reported record results for the three months ended March 31, 2006. Highlights from the first quarter 2006 included:
-- Record revenues of $46.4 million, a 73% year-over-year increase
-- Record net income of $18.0 million, or $0.29 per diluted share
-- Record daily average revenue trades (DARTs) of 29,400, a
78% year-over-year increase
-- Industry-leading 64% pre-tax margins
-- Record net new accounts of 16,900, resulting in 178,700 customer
accounts, a 53% increase on a year-over-year basis
-- Record sequential customer asset growth of $599 million, resulting in
$4.0 billion of total customer assets, an 84% increase on a
year-over-year basis
-- Named Barron's #1 Online Broker for the fourth year in a row
"Strong net new account growth, combined with improved market activity, drove revenues and net income higher in the first quarter," commented David Kalt, Chief Executive Officer of optionsXpress. "We continue to take advantage of the sustained growth in the overall options market with our marketing initiatives generating low cost new accounts. For the third consecutive quarter, year-over-year net income growth was over 80%."
"We are extremely proud of optionsXpress' 'remarkable display of consistency' in being named the top online broker by Barron's for the fourth consecutive year," Kalt continued. "The recognition is a testament to our culture of persistent innovation and focus on the customer experience."
During the quarter, the average number of trades per account were 43 on an annualized basis, rising from 39 in the fourth quarter. As a result of the increased activity and organic account growth, DARTs were 29,400 in the first quarter, up 78% from 16,500 in the first quarter of 2005 and up 21% from 24,200 in the fourth quarter of 2005. Total revenue growth was 73% over the first quarter of last year and 16% over the fourth quarter of 2005. Resulting net income for the first quarter was $18.0 million, or $0.29 per share on a diluted basis, an 84% increase from $9.8 million in the first quarter of last year and a 15% increase from $15.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2005.
"In the first quarter, our scalable and efficient model enabled us to capitalize on increased customer activity. Total trades increased 20% over the fourth quarter but total operating expenses per trade decreased $0.22 to $9.23," stated David Fisher, Chief Financial Officer of optionsXpress. "While average commissions were lower during the quarter, this in part reflects the positive trend of our customers transacting a greater percentage of their non-option brokerage business through optionsXpress. The high incremental margin on the additional equity trades results in greater revenues with very little incremental expense."
During the quarter, optionsXpress announced a dividend of $0.05 per share, a 25% increase from the fourth quarter dividend. The total amount of the dividend was approximately $3.1 million and was paid to shareholders on March 30, 2006.
Outlook
"As we head into the typically slower summer season, we believe we are in an excellent competitive position," Kalt commented. "Our customer-focused platform combined with our low-cost marketing strategies should continue to generate strong organic customer account and asset growth while helping us drive other initiatives in specialty brokerage like futures, brokersXpress, international and our conversion to self-clearing." |
