JMP Comments On TD Ameritrade, Says 'Core Business Trends Remain Healthy'

JMP Securities commented on TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. AMTD Thursday following its Q1 results and maintained a Market Perform rating.

Analyst Devin Ryan commented that the “‘core’ business trends remain healthy for TD Ameritrade” after it “reported F1Q15 EPS of $0.39, in line with our estimate and consensus.”

“A number of themes were consistent with what we have seen from peers who have already reported, including strong net new asset growth (net new assets increased a record $19 billion, an 11 percent annualized rate), client assets reached a new record (up 3 percent sequentially), interest rate sensitive assets increased 1 percent sequentially to $101 billion, and the activity rate of 7.2 percent was solid in the quarter (high end of management’s FY2015 outlook range),” according to Ryan.

“While DARTs increased 3 percent in December,” Ryan suspected “this was a bit lower than upwardly revised expectations, and we note that the firm experienced some contraction on its net interest rate related spreads, to 1.53 percent (down from 1.55 percent).”

Ryan characterized the results “as respectable with solid underlying trends" and continued "to believe AMTD is a positive growth story within the industry with strong business momentum (outside of recent interest rate pressure), but we will continue to look for other company-specific catalysts outside of a call on rates or for a more dislocated valuation to become more constructive on shares.”

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. recently traded at $33.32, up 0.12 percent