Raymond James Financial, Ameriprise Financial and UBS reported higher profits and client assets in their U.S.-based wealth operations for the quarter ending June 30. But only Raymond James saw its headcount rise from results in both the prior year and earlier quarter.
Late Wednesday, Raymond James reported total revenues of $1.93 billion, up 5% over the prior year; its net income was $259 million, or $1.80 per share, versus $232 million, or $1.55 per share.
Its Private Client Group had a 6% year-over-year jump in sales and pretax net income to $1.35 billion and $140 million, respectively. Assets under administration grew 9% from last year and 4% from the prior quarter to $787.4 billion; fee-based assets stood at $398 billion.
Raymond James’ advisor headcount was 7,904 as of June 30, an increase of 185 from a year ago and 42 from March 30. Some 4,700 of these advisors are independent contractors, while the rest are employees.
“We generated a solid net increase in the number of financial advisors during the quarter as we remain focused on retaining and attracting high-quality financial advisors,” according to Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly. “Recruiting activity remains strong across all of our affiliation options.”
Ameriprise Earnings
The firm had overall net income of $492 million, or $3.57 per share in Q2’19 vs. $462 million, or $3.10 per share, a year earlier. Its revenue grew 2% year over year to $3.25 billion.
The Advice & Wealth Management unit grew its revenues 8% over last year to $1.69 million, and its pretax profits were up 7% to $376 million.
Client assets for the business are $607.5 million, up 7% from a year ago and 3% from the prior quarter. It had $4.8 billion net wrap inflows in Q2’19.
Advisors total 9,951, a gain of 45 from Q2’18 but down 28 from Q1’19. About 2,200 of these advisors are employees, with the rest being independent contractors.
These reps have average trailing 12-month fees and commissions of $638,000.