Ameriprise Financial 2Q profit dropped 58% but beat Street

Financial adviser Ameriprise Financial Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter profit dropped 58 percent as it dealt with the fallout from a weak stock market, but results still managed to beat expectations. For the quarter ended June 30, the company posted profit of $95 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with $210 million, or $1.03 per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 5 percent to $1.88 billion from $1.97 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $1.77 billion. Analysts typically exclude one-time items. "While the environment continued to impact our results, we're beginning to see signs of improvement, with increased client activity and solid asset flows across our platform," Chairman and CEO Jim Cracchiolo said in a statement. Owned, managed and administered assets were $397 billion as of June 30, down 10 percent year-over-year primarily due to the 28 percent decline in the S&P 500. The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 17 cents per share, payable Aug. 17 to shareholders of record on Aug. 3. Ameriprise shares rose $1.18, or 4.7 percent, to close the regular session at $26.17. The stock has traded between $11.74 and $49.76 during the past 52 weeks.