(By Balaseshan) Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCHW), a provider of financial services, reported third-quarter earnings that came in ahead of Wall Street projections. In addition, the company has agreed to buy dividend income-focused asset management firm ThomasPartners Inc.
Quarterly profit was $238 million, up 12% from $220 million in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share (EPS) rose 6% to $0.19 from $0.18.
Revenue increased 1% to $1.20 billion. In the second quarter of 2012, Charles Schwab earned 20 cents a share on revenue of $1.28 billion.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $0.17 per share on revenue of $1.20 billion for the third quarter.
Pre-tax profit margin declined to 30.2% from 30.5% in the year-ago quarter and 33.7% in the previous quarter.
Clients' daily average trades for the second quarter fell 15% to 402,400, while average revenue per trade rose 3% to $12.44.
The company ended the quarter with 8.7 million active brokerage accounts, 844,000 banking accounts, and $1.89 trillion in total client assets, up 3%, 10%, and 20%, respectively, over September 2011.
In a separate release, the company said it has agreed to buy ThomasPartners Inc., which includes an upfront payment of $85 million in cash and the opportunity for additional payments contingent on future growth in assets under management (AUM).
At current AUM levels, Schwab anticipates that the acquisition to be neutral to EPS for the first 12 months post-closing, and become modestly accretive within the next 12 months.
Headquartered in Wellesley, Massachusetts, ThomasPartners is a dividend income-focused asset management firm with $2.3 billion in AUM as of September 30, 2012, in largely growth-oriented investment portfolios designed to generate dividend income streams. The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter.
The stock, which has been trading between $10.67 and $15.53 over the past 52 weeks, is trading up 0.08% at $12.96 on Monday.