Futu Holdings (Nasdaq: FUTU) published its fourth quarter 2022 financials, reporting a revenue of $292.3 million and a gross profit of $248.5 million. Both these figures jumped 42.3 percent and 39.9 percent, respectively. Its net income also increased by 92.2 percent to $122.9 million.

Futu Posts Solid Numbers

Futu earned $134.4 million from brokerage commission and handling charge income, an increase of 22.4 percent driven by the increase in the blended commission rate. Its interest income jumped 84.2 percent to $145.8 million, whereas other income dropped 26.5 percent to $12.1 million.

Moreover, its net income margin improved to 42 percent in the latest quarter from 31.1 percent in the previous year's comparable quarter.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Futu is known for offering Chinese retail traders access to foreign-listed stocks. Now, the company is focused on diversifying its market and is expanding in Southeast Asia.

In addition, its expansion outside mainland China was pushed by the Communist government's actions against such platforms. In December, the Chinese securities market regulator said broker platforms like Futu were involved in the unlawful securities business and asked to take corrective measures.

Trading Volume Took a Hit

Despite the solid revenue and profits, the trading volume on the platform continued to decline between October and December. According to the official numbers, the total trading volume on Futu declined 10.9 percent to HK$1.1 trillion. US-listed stocks topped the demand for Futu customers with HK$675.3 billion in trading volume, followed by Hong Kong-listed stocks with HK$396.6 billion.

The trading volume on Futu has been declining for a few consecutive quarters. Additionally, the number for 2022 came down by 21 percent to HK$4.9 trillion.

The daily average revenue trades (DARTs) of Futu declined by 12.7 percent to 475,005, while the annual figures dropped 8.1 percent.

Client Metrics Remain Strong

Meanwhile, other client metrics of Futu strengthened significantly. The total number of paying clients on the trading platform increased by 19.5 percent to more than 1.48 million, while the number of registered clients jumped 17.5 percent to over 3.3 million. Futu ended the quarter with 19.6 million total users, which is an uptick of 12.7 percent.

However, the daily average client assets declined by 10.5 percent to HK$383.1 billion.

"In the fourth quarter, client acquisition decelerated across all regions due to weak market performance in the first half of the quarter and concerns over the sustainability of market rebound in the second half," said Leaf Hua Li, Futu's Chairman and CEO.

"The growth momentum of our wealth management business sustained into the fourth quarter, as clients piled into money market funds amid interest rate hikes to take advantage of higher yields."

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