OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Online brokerage TD Ameritrade’s fiscal third-quarter earnings nearly doubled as trading remained strong and last year’s acquisition of rival Scottrade started paying off.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company said it earned $451 million net income, or 79 cents per share. That was up from $231 million, or 44 cents per share, a year ago.
When adjusted for one-time expenses, TD Ameritrade earned 89 cents per share. That was well above the 79 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected.
TD Ameritrade said the integration of its Scottrade acquisition, which it completed last fall, is ahead of schedule, and the company has cut $212 million in expenses through the end of the quarter.
The online brokerage posted revenue of $1.38 billion in the period. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.35 billion.
TD Ameritrade handled an average of 783,665 trades per day, which helped it generate $490 million in trading fees, up from $335 million.
And the company’s asset-based revenue grew to $859 million from last year’s $573 million.
TD Ameritrade CEO Tim Hockey said the company added a new investment-advice tool during the quarter that is a combination of automated advice and human suggestions. That will help round out its offerings of advice.
TD Ameritrade TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.’s stock was up 64 cents, or about 1 percent, at $59.70 in extended trading after the release of the earnings report.