Lots of Positive Signs as E*Trade Reports Key Metrics, and DARTs Growth

E*-Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) released some pretty decent numbers on Wednesday, although it did have much of an impact on the stock. But, perhaps that's because the key metrics that were reported may have already been priced into the stock. Don't forget the stock has experienced a significant run-up in the past couple of weeks since its latest conference call, and is up from a 52-week low of $2.08.

The brokerage issued a report detailing monthly activity for January in which total daily average revenue trades, otherwise known in the industry as DARTs, rose 19% month over month and 22% year over year to 212,000 due to more active trading on the back of market gyrations. This is above the range of DARTs guidance of 170,000 to 200,000 that was expected for each month during 2008. A very positive sign is that client cash balances increased a bit to $33.6 billion in the month, while total retail client assets dropped 8.4% to $174 billion, though it is to be expected with the horrendous performance of the major market indices. The S&P 500 was down 6.1% and the NASDAQ was lower by 9.9% during the month of January.

Another good piece of news is that shareholders no longer have to worry about E*Trade losing its clients. Another confirmation of that came with the end of period retail accounts increasing by 16,000 to 4.73 million, albeit growth was rather tepid. Yet, there is some optimism in regards to that number in the future because E*Trade notes that a week after its Super Bowl ads ran, it realized a 32% increase in newly opened and funded brokerage accounts. Continued progress will go a long way in proving a successful turnaround is underway, and bringing the stock back to respectable levels.

Comments

[helplessobserver]

I sold my eTrade stock at $15 after taking a $6 per share haircut. As a customer I find the trading platform excellent for investment and long term investments.