“Ameriprise delivered another strong quarter,” CEO Jim Cracchiolo said in a statement. “Revenues and earnings were up nicely and our operating return on equity reached a new record of 20.8%.”
Armed with strong performance from its advisory and asset management businesses, Ameriprise Financial Inc. delivered on the upside for the first quarter.
The company reported first quarter earnings of $2.04 per share. The asset management and financial advice company beat analysts' estimates of $1.88 per share by 16 cents, according to results issued on Monday.
For the quarter that ended last month, the company's pretax operating earnings from Advice & Wealth Management and Asset Management grew 36% to $364 million, the company reported. Total retail client assets increased 12% to $418 billion, driven by client net inflows, the company said.
“Ameriprise delivered another strong quarter,” CEO Jim Cracchiolo said in a statement. “Revenues and earnings were up nicely and our operating return on equity reached a new record of 20.8%.”
“Our advisory and asset management businesses continue to drive our growth,” he said. “Clients committed record flows to fee-based wrap programs and we're steadily driving improvement in advisor productivity.”
Financial adviser productivity continued to improve, the company said. On a trailing 12 month basis, operating net revenue per adviser, excluding results from former banking operations, increased 15% to $454,000.
Adviser recruiting remained solid, with 76 experienced adviser moving their practices to Ameriprise during the quarter and the recruiting pipeline remains good, the company said. In total, Ameriprise has a network of 10,000 registered reps in both an employee channel and an independent contractor model.
