• Friday, May 18, 7:35 AM "One of the bright spots we observed was the IPOs bring about some re-engagement from retail investors who previously were sitting on the sidelines," says an Ameritrade spokeswoman about the GM IPO. Josh Brown ponders Facebook, believing its IPO will give a much-needed boost to struggling equity trade volume at the online brokers. 3 Comments [Financials]
• Friday, April 20, 9:05 AM Shares of E-Trade (ETFC) rip a 5.8% gain premarket after its Q1 report (I, II) impresses investors. The brokerage firm says it added $4B in new brokerages assets and 46K new accounts in the period, helping it realize a 12% Y/Y increase in trading activity. 2 Comments [On the Move, Financials]
• Friday, April 20, 9:00 AM Premarket gainers: WOLF +7%. AMRN +6%. CPST +6%. BPOP +6%. ETFC +5%. ING +4%. ARNA +4%. HON +4%. DB +4%. SLB +4%. MSFT +3%. DANG +3%. HERO +3%. E +3%.
  Losers: RVBD -26%. TPX -13%. SNDK -13%. EXPD -6%. NOK -3%. Comment! [On the Move]
• Thursday, April 19, 4:38 PM More on E-Trade (ETFC): Q1 beats across the board despite a 9% Y/Y decline in revenue. Net profit climbed 38% over the same year ago period, bolstered by a $26M tax benefit and a 38% decline in its loan-loss provision - a key metric for investors because it reflects the company's recovery from bad bets made on the U.S. housing market. Shares +2.4% AH. Comment! [Financials, Earnings, On the Move]
• Thursday, April 19, 4:18 PM E*TRADE Financial (ETFC): Q1 EPS of $0.13 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $489M (-9% Y/Y) beats by $22M. Shares -2.4% AH. (PR) Comment! [Earnings, Financials, On the Move]
• Thursday, April 19, 12:10 AM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: ALTR, AMD, ASBC, CB, COF, ETFC, GDI, HBI, MSFT, PLCM, RVBD, SNDK, TPX, WYNN Comment! [Earnings]
• Wednesday, April 18, 5:35 PM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: ALTR, AMD, ASBC, CB, COF, ETFC, GDI, HBI, MSFT, PLCM, RVBD, SNDK, TPX, WYNN Comment! [Earnings]
• Monday, April 16, 10:53 AM E-Trade (ETFC -0.4%) gives back early gains and adds to Friday's 5% sell-off ahead of earnings this week. The firm says the selling seems overdone, believing the decline to be largely due to a negative read-through from JP Morgan (JPM -0.4%), which had to move $1.6B of mostly current second lien loans to non-performing status. Wells thinks the accounting change won't have significant impact on ETFC's results. Comment! [Financials]
• Tuesday, April 3, 12:42 PM Online brokers E-Trade (ETFC -2%) and Charles Schwab (SCHW -0.7%) slide after Sandler O’Neill's Rich Repetto says retail trading at online firms fell 5%-10% M/M in March: "We suspect March retail trading generally underperformed consolidated industry share volumes, which were down 5.1% sequentially,” Repetto says. 1 Comment [Financials, On the Move]
• Friday, March 30, 12:35 PM Keefe Bruyette raises price targets on TD Ameritrade (AMTD +1.3%) from $20 to $23.50, Schwab (SCHW +0.2%) from $13 to $15, and E-Trade (ETFC -0.1%) from $10 to $12 ahead of Q1 results. The firm cites improving consumer and investor sentiment and better than expected trading activity. Comment! [Financials]
• Monday, March 19, 10:34 AM E-Trade (ETFC +3.6%) gets a boost from a Wells Fargo upgrade to Outperform this morning, citing improved retail investor engagement, better housing fundamentals, and slowing fund outflows. Comment! [Financials, On the Move]
• Wednesday, March 14, 10:13 AM The on-again, off-again chatter on E-Trade (ETFC +1.3%) getting bought out is back on after a taking a breather. Earlier today, the company announced a 16% M/M increase in DARTs for February and a net positive $1.9B change in assets for the month. Comment! [Financials]
• Monday, February 13, 10:43 AM Retail traders are getting more active, a good sign for brokerages. E*Trade’s (ETFC +1%) average daily trading volume in January was down Y/Y but up 20% from December, mirroring recent results from other online brokerages. ETFC added 30,298 brokerage accounts last month to ~2.8M; customer assets total $185.4B, up 2.3% Y/Y and up 7.5% M/M. 1 Comment [Financials]
• Saturday, February 4, 2:00 PM E-Trade (ETFC) plans to air another high-priced ad during tomorrow's Super Bowl with a repeat performance by its talking baby set to air (sneak peek). If the ad delivers laughs again it could impact E-Trade's share price next week, as university researchers have crunched data to find a direct correlation between the likability of a Super Bowl ad and short-term stock returns. Last year, after the talking baby scored a hit, ETFC was up 2.2% the Monday after the SB and 4.2% for the week. 4 Comments [Financials, Quick Ideas]
• Friday, February 3, 9:38 AM Even after the rally, Doug Kass believes investors are still under-invested in stocks. A re-allocation into stocks and out of bonds represents a "potentially massive (and latent) demand that could easily be the catalyst for a move to all-time highs in the S&P 500 in 2012." Kass sees opportunity in asset managers and discount brokers: OZM, TROW, WDR, LM, ETFC, SCHW. Comment! [Quick Ideas]
• Monday, January 30, 2:28 PM Shares of E-Trade Financial (ETFC +1.2%) trade higher after it names Frank Petrilli as its new chairman, replacing Chief Executive Steven Freiberg. Comment! [Financials, On the Move]