Raymond James Beats Estimates as Private Client Sales Jump 10%
The firm has 7,815 advisors, which is up two from the prior quarter and 278 from a year earlier.
Raymond James topped analysts’ estimates for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2018, with net income of $249 million, or $1.69 per share, vs. $119 million, or $0.80 per share, a year earlier. Sales improved 12% year over year to $1.93 billion.
Though assets dropped along with market declines, the Private Client Group produced a 10% increase in revenues from last year to $1.36 billion, which topped the earlier quarter by 4%. Pre-tax net income for the unit rose 6% from last year and 25% from the prior quarter to $164 million.
(Related: 12 Best & Worst Broker-Dealers: Q3 Earnings, 2018)
Assets under advisement by Private Client registered reps weakened slightly from a year ago to nearly $691 billion from $692 billion, but were down about 9% from the prior quarter. (Fee-based assets total $339 million.)
“Despite the challenging market environment, the Private Client Group segment, Asset Management segment and Raymond James Bank generated record net revenues during the quarter,” said Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly, in a statement.
“We acted opportunistically during the quarter to deploy capital through share repurchases, as well as the recently announced niche acquisition of Silver Lane Advisors to compliment and expand our investment banking business,” he added.
Raymond James has a total of 7,815 advisors, up two from the prior quarter and 278 from a year earlier. The number of independent advisors stands at 4,679 in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom.
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