LPL Financial (LPLA) Reports Mixed Activity For July 2017

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) recorded total brokerage and advisory assets of $550 billion in July 2017, up 1.4% from the previous month. Of these, brokerage assets were $308 billion while advisory assets were $242 billion.

The company reported $27.3 billion of total client cash sweep balances for July, down 1.8% from June 2017. Of the total cash balance, $21.5 billion was insured cash, $3.6 billion was deposit cash and the remaining $2.2 billion was money market balance.

As the global equity markets have been gradually stabilizing, trading activities are likely to improve. Also, LPL Financial has been extending its offerings to all affiliated advisors, which is expected to help the company gain greater market share.

Notably, the company’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has been revised 6.5% upward over the last 30 days. This reflects analysts’ optimism regarding its earnings growth prospects.

As a result, LPL Financial currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

LPL Financial’s price performance also seems encouraging. Shares of the company have gained 65.8% over the last 12 months, outperforming the 34.7% rally for the industry it belongs to. Given the positive estimate revisions and a solid Zacks Rank, we expect this upbeat price performance to continue in the near term as well.



Performance of Other Investment Brokers

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:IBKR) Electronic Brokerage segment reported a year-over-year increase in Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) for July 2017. Total client DARTs were 694,000, up 15% from July 2016. Similarly, DARTs were up 2% from the prior month.

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC) reported a sequential decline in its Daily Average Revenue Trades for July 2017. The company’s DARTs were 208,156, down 3% from the prior month but up a staggering 42% year over year. Notably, derivatives comprised 34% of DARTs for July.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:AMTD) reported average client trades per day of 514,000 in its activity report for July 2017, unchanged from the prior-month tally but up 13% from the year-ago period. Total client assets were $900.9 billion, up 2% from the prior month and 19% year over year.

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