Ameriprise Jumps Most Since 2012 on Profit Gain, Share Buyback

(Bloomberg) -- Ameriprise Financial posted the biggest gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index after reporting profit that beat analysts’ estimates and announcing increased share buybacks.

The money manager and insurer jumped 5% to $108.63 at 10:52 a.m. in New York after climbing as much as 6%, the largest increase for the firm since 2012.

First-quarter net income advanced 19 percent from a year earlier to $400 million, the Minneapolis-based company said in a statement late yesterday. Operating profit of $2.04 a share beat the $1.88 average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Ameriprise raised its quarterly dividend 12% to 58 cents and announced the authorization of $2.5 billion in additional share repurchases over the next two years.

“Capital management continues at a robust pace,” John Nadel, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach, wrote in a research note. “The bull case appears well intact.”

Ameriprise’s last buyback authorization, in 2012, was for $2 billion of shares.

Read more:

• Costs Squeeze LPL Profits as Recruiting Slowed
• Raymond James Private Client Group Reports Record Revenues
• Morgan Stanley Posts $1.5B Profit, Boosted by Wealth Management