E*Trade's 3Q jumps 114%
Online broker's 3Q results in line with
forecasts despite large revenue jump
July 21, 1998: 6:39 p.m. ET
Softbank invests in 'Net broker - July 10, 1998
E*Trade
More related sites... NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Online broker E*Trade Group Inc. Tuesday reported a 114 percent increase in net income and its 24th consecutive quarter of revenue growth for its fiscal third quarter ended June 30.
The company earned $6.6 million, or 16 cents a diluted share, compared to $3 million, or 9 cents a diluted share, in the quarter last year.
Those numbers were in line with analyst forecasts of 16 cents.
Revenues jumped to $62.3 million from $37 million in the quarter a year ago.
For the first nine months of its fiscal year, E*Trade earned $17.5 million, or 42 cents a diluted share, compared to $8.3 million, or 24 cents a diluted share, a year ago.
Revenues for the first nine months grew to $166.7 million from $94.2 million in 1997.
E*Trade President and Chief Executive Officer attributed the revenue and profit growth to a surge in traffic on its Web site.
"During the quarter, the average value of securities traded electronically through E*Trade was $1.5 billion per week, almost double the $800 million during the same quarter in 1997," he said.
"We expect overall traffic to increase even more in the fall when we aggressively launch our new destination Web site...," he said.
The company's redesigned site, to be known as Destination E*Trade, will offer a wider array of financial content. The company is also in the process of implementing a new system that will separate computers handling trades from those serving up stock quotes and news.
The new site is now available to E*Trade customers. Many features will also be made available to the general public in September.
Japanese software distributor and publisher Softbank recently announced it was taking a 27.2 percent stake in the brokerage which netted E*Trade $400 million.
E*Trade said it will use the money to fund acquisitions and to aggressively promote its the new Web design.
The results were announced after the closing bell. E*Trade (EGRP) shares ended off 1/4 to 32.
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