Another PQT Customer--Ameritrade:
Ameritrade Earnings Better Than Expected
By Heather Moore, John J. Edwards III and Aaron L. Task
Staff Reporters TheStreet.Com
1/20/99 8:14 PM ET
Ameritrade Holding (AMTD:Nasdaq), parent of Ameritrade and Accutrade online brokerages, reported earnings of 13 cents a share for the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 39 cents in the year-ago quarter. The seven-analyst First Call consensus called for 9 cents. On Dec. 22, the company guided expectations upward to the range of 9 cents to 11 cents. Ameritrade follows E*Trade (EGRP:Nasdaq) and Charles Schwab (SCH:NYSE) in reporting better-than-expected earnings for the trade-heavy December quarter.
Ameritrade said it had $52.1 million in net revenue and $3.7 million in net income in the quarter, compared with $39.6 million in net revenue and a loss of $11.2 million in the year-ago fiscal first quarter. A large chunk of the difference between the two quarters is reduced ad spending. Ameritrade spent $9.6 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, and $24.9 million in the year-ago quarter. The broker also reported a pretax charge of $2 million for technology improvements and $3.1 million for customer execution price adjustments during times of trading problems. Both those charges are in line with the company's Dec. 22 announcement.
Accounts grew to 354,000, up from 306,000 in the fourth quarter ended September. Average trades reached 33,489 a day, a 39% increase over the September quarter. Ameritrade closed at 57, up 5 1/4, or 10.2%.
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