Indiana Grain Company, LLC

Posted: 07/20/10

By: tomgrisafi

As reported by the AP, record trading activity during a volatile quarter "helped lift TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s fiscal third-quarter net income by 5 percent to beat expectations."

On Tuesday, the online brokerage said that during the quarter, which included the historic May 6 "flash crash," average client trades per day rose 6 percent to 413,000.

TD Ameritrade said it added about 175,000 new accounts during the quarter, flat with a year ago, "bringing its total to 7.9 million."

Total client assets reached $323.8 billion - that's up 22 percent from $265 billion a year ago, but down 5 percent from $341.5 in the March quarter.

CEO Fred Tomczyk said the heavy customer activity reflected the market's ups and downs. "Any time there's good volatility in the market, we typically will do well," he said.

For the quarter, TD Ameritrade posted net income of $179.4 million, up from $170.5 million, or 30 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue also jumped 13 percent to $691.8 million, from $613.8 million last year.

The results topped expectations of analysts recorded by Thomson Reuters, with expected revenue of $682 million.

Tomczyk said the financial regulation bill President Obama is expected to sign tomorrow will have little effect on Ameritrade.

"We don't feel like there's much of an impact from the reform," he said.

Source: WSJ, AP