Despite stronger results from other online brokerage companies in July, E-Trade Financial Corp. reported that average trading volume fell last month.
The New York-based company said Wednesday that trading declined 5.1% from a month earlier and 20% from a year earlier. Charles Schwab Corp. and TD Ameritrade reported separately last week that trading had declined slightly, but not at the same rate as E-Trade.
With the exception of May’s “flash crash,” analysts said trading volume declined over the past six months as stocks have slumped.
E-Trade said it added 4,536 U.S. brokerage accounts in July, bringing its customer base to 2.7 million. A year earlier, it added 7,005.
Total customer assets increased 12% from a year earlier to $152.1 billion, and they 5.8% from June.
Inflows to brokerage accounts totaled $500 million, up both on the month and year.
Despite the weaker monthly metrics, Matt Snowling, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said he still expects E-Trade to outperform.
"We continue to view E-Trade as a credit and capital turnaround story that should continue to gain momentum as its portfolio continues to season and earnings power grows," he wrote in a report Wednesday. "The company returned to profitability in [the second quarter] quicker than we had initially expected, and with the bank consistently having been able to generate capital for several
quarters, we expect E-Trade to transition from defense to offense by buying back debt and refocusing on its core brokerage business."
TD Ameritrade announced