E-Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) reported late Wednesday that it swung to a first-quarter profit of $45 million, or 16 cents a share from a loss of $47.8 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue for the quarter was unchanged from a year ago at $537 million. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report earnings of 11 cents per share on revenue of $388.54 million.
E-Trade reported DARTs of 177,000 during the quarter, an increase of 18 percent from the prior quarter and an increase of 14 percent versus the same quarter a year ago.
At quarter end, the company reported 4.3 million customer accounts, which included 2.7 million brokerage accounts. Net new brokerage accounts were 51,000 during the quarter compared with 28,000 in the prior quarter and 2,000 in the first quarter of 2010.
The company ended the quarter with $189 billion in total customer assets, compared with $176 billion in the prior quarter.
"E-Trade is off to a terrific start in 2011," said Steven Freiberg, Chief Executive Officer of E-Trade Financial Corporation. "Our first quarter results benefited from strength in our brokerage franchise, growth in both interest and non-interest revenue, positive loan performance trends and ongoing expense management. We reported impressive sequential and year-over-year growth in DARTs, brokerage accounts and margin receivables, and net new brokerage assets of $3.9 billion were the highest we've ever recorded. With increased capacity to invest in the franchise, continued improvement in loan performance trends and a focus on expenses, E-Trade is well positioned for growth."
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