TD Ameritrade lowers earnings forecast

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., the discount brokerage firm that also offers custody services to independent investment advisers, reported fiscal 2009 first-quarter earnings today of $184.4 million, or 31 cents a share, meeting analysts’ forecasts. That’s compared to with $240.8 million profit, or 40 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. The company lowered its full-year earnings-per-share forecast to a range of 90 cents to $1.15 a share, down from a $1.10 to $1.42 range it gave just three months ago. “We see no signs that the overall economic environment is strengthening, and may not for the balance of our fiscal year,” Bill Gerber, chief financial officer of the Omaha-based company, said in a prepared statement. “While we are doing several things to mitigate these near-term head winds, we remain focused on managing through this cycle and positioning our firm for growth in the long term.” New accounts opened during the quarter rose to 6.89 million, up from 6.38 million a year earlier, while 60,000 customers closed accounts, compared with 54,000 a year earlier. TD Ameritrade said marketing costs of acquiring new accounts fell. Client assets at TD Ameritrade were down 22% from a year earlier, but company chief executive Fred Tomczyk noted in a conference call with analysts that the decline was far less than the approximately 40% year-over-year declines in broad equity market indexes.