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Earnings Calls: 
TD Ameritrade Third Quarter Earnings Call
Author: Rozalina Destanova
123jump.com
Last Update: 3:37 PM EDT October 16 2007


The online brokerage firm reported revenue increase of 0.3% to $541.8 million, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $529 million. The company has turned its attention toward attracting mass affluent investors, those with $100,000 to $1 million of investable assets. While asset-based revenue inched higher by 5% to $333 million, total commissions and transaction fees dropped 7% to $198 million. The company expects to make between 97 cents and $1.05 a share for the year.

 
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Key questions from the third quarter earnings call conducted by Ameritrade Holding Corporation on July 26, 2007.

Mike Vinciquerra (BMO Capital Markets): Where you are seeing the first opportunities and why do you have acceleration in spend right now?

Joe Moglia: We talked about a $100 million spend, and the sooner we implement that spend, we think the sooner that we are going to get results. The management team has come with individual requests; I have allocated 85% or 90% of that so far. You should assume all $100 million dollars is absolutely going to be allocated for 2008. Wherever we had approvals, we began to make those investments right away. The vast majority of those investments early on are in the sales force and greater support in the call centers.

Mike Vinciquerra (BMO Capital Markets): RIA is your core business, is there anything specifically being focused on?

Joe Moglia: It would be across the respective client end segments, but the greatest emphasis is in the areas where we think we can openly gather assets.

Mike Vinciquerra (BMO Capital Markets): Is there any financial impact you can provide for us on the five serve deal in terms of revenue contribution because you are buying most of that organization, but there is a piece that is going to another buyer, and it is uncertain what the pre-tax margins are going to be on the piece that you are buying?

Joe Moglia: We are going to close that beyond a million of asset. We are going to close that deal over the span of next 3-5 months. We have $60 million of revenues and about a $40 million of expenses.

Mike Vinciquerra (BMO Capital Markets): You are growing your asset management business and growing your mutual fund side. How might that impact you if something comes through?

Joe Moglia: It is not going to be an issue for us. the way pricing takes place in the industry can adjust overtime, and today the 12B-1 fees are rather a small piece of what we do, and as we look at how we want to gather assets, while we need to be able to be in the middle of a mutual fund business with regards to offering products etcetera. We are going to be looking at other things, our own index funds, GPS.

Rich Repetto (Sandler O'Neill): Could you expand on the incremental and the investment spend?

Joe Moglia: Yes.

Rich Repetto (Sandler O'Neill): Is it safe to say that you have spent $20 million in fiscal fourth quarter that is going to be $80 million next year?

Joe Moglia: You should assume it is going to be $80 million next year. The way to approach it that these are not meant to be one-time spend, they are meant to be permanent investment. One of our ongoing efforts is be able to generate greater revenues, so if you think in terms of $100 million incremental spent for 2008, you will be covered on that, but that is just not go away in 2009.

Rich Repetto (Sandler O'Neill): What is the payback on that?

Joe Moglia: The entire objective is going to be trying to help us become a greater asset gatherer. That will happen by having more people in our sales force, by being able to provide better service. As a transaction oriented firm over the years, one of the things you wanted to do in the call center, somebody will call, you wanted to get off the phone reasonable quickly in order to be able to solve the client's issue or problem, you can not get off the phone quickly now, if indeed that is exactly what we are trying to do. We need more personnel in the call center. We are in the midst of either or already rolling out or going to be rolling out more of long term oriented products. We are going create a bond wizard. Those are all some of things in effect that we are trying to do to enhance our capability in the long-term investors' space.

Rich Repetto (Sandler O'Neill): When you spread on the $20 million that turns into $80 million out over year, is it just a sort of sustain the revenue outlook that is current right now or does it, bring in at the margin 50%?

Joe Moglia: We are hopeful that it is going to bring in additional revenue next year. We are going to give you more detail on that in October. It is also meant to protect the assets we have. If we lose a client, because we have not had a long-term offering, but this does a better job of protecting what we already have, as well as helps us to attract new assets. It does both of those.

Rich Repetto (Sandler O'Neill): You have the independent committee to evaluate the strategic alternatives. What are they doing now, are they meeting with other companies, are they being contacted, are they reaching out to investors?

Joe Moglia: M&A is something that we work at all. To have M&A committee that can assist us in that, help monitor that, help have provide us with ideas as far as that goes. I do believe is a smart and a valuable thing. With all the things going on in the industry we have already said that, you should assume that we are talking to and we will continue to talk to any player that exist in the industry. Anything specific with regards to the M&A committee, as far as the discussions with anybody, I would not be able to disclose that anyhow. As part of standard operating procedure, you should assume that the management and the M&A committee are involved with stuff that we have got going on.

Prashant Bhatia (Citigroup): Now that the integration is done, how much attrition did you have in terms of the assets or in terms of qualified accounts?
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