E*Trade Financial Corporation has published its financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2020, with the company recording more than double net new retail assets and accounts in the first six months of the year than across any full-year period in the firm’s history.
During the second quarter of 2020, ended on the 30th of June this year, E*Trade reported total net revenue of $716 million. This is slightly stronger than the previous quarter by 1.3 per cent. It is also higher than the $685 million net revenue achieved in the second quarter of June 2019 by 4.5 per cent.
Net income for the second quarter was $196 million. Whilst this is stronger against the previous quarter’s net income by 10.5 per cent, it is less than the $219 million net income posted in Q2 of 2019.
Whilst revenue and net income noted only slight changes, daily average revenue trades (DARTs) for the second quarter surpassed one million at 1,010,000 - a company record for E*Trade. During the three month period, the brokerage service provider reported derivate DARTs of 253,000, another record.
Record H1 2020 operational performance
The number of net new retail accounts across the second quarter of 2020 was 327,000. When compared with the previous year, this is a rise of 24 per cent. Net new retail assets also jumped by 17 per cent year-on-year to reach $13.6 billion.
Commenting on the results, Mike Pizzi, Chief Executive Officer of E*Trade said in the statement: “The second quarter was extraordinary as we achieved levels of customer engagement that are without precedent in our nearly 40-year history.
“In the first six months of the year we have set six sequential records for both total and derivative DARTs, resulting in over a million DARTs for the second quarter, and culminating in over 1.1 million DARTs in the month of June.”
Pizzi went on to highlight that the volumes achieved in derivatives have surpassed the company’s DARTs across all securities types from a few years ago. Furthermore, the firm generated greater retail organic asset growth in the first six months of 2020 than in the previous two years combined.
E*Trade secures shareholder approval for Morgan Stanley Merger
In addition to reporting its record financial performance in the first six months of this year, the CEO of the company also provided an update on the merger with Morgan Stanley, which is planned to close in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“We obtained shareholder approval for the merger last week, and along with Morgan Stanley, are working to obtain the remaining required regulatory approvals,” Pizzi explained.
