Ameriprise Profits Soar; Firm Boosts Dividend
April 29, 2014 by Jennifer Bjorhus, Star Tribune (Minneapolis
April 29–Profits took another double-digit jump atAmeriprise Financial Inc. in the first quarter on fee growth and investor optimism.
TheMinneapolis-based company on Monday reported operating profits of$407 million, or$2.04 per share, up 20 percent from a year earlier and beating theWall Street consensus estimate by16 cents a share.
Ameriprise executives will discuss the results Tuesday morning.
“Ameriprise delivered another strong quarter,” CEOJim Cracchiolo said in a news release.
Shares were up in after-hours trading.
One of the country’s largest branded broker-dealers, Ameriprise has a battalion of financial advisers competing with the likes ofEdward Jones andRaymond James for the savings of the affluent and mass affluent. Longtime Ameriprise spokesmanTommy Lee Jones popped up in a television spot during the Sochi Olympics talking retirement planning as part of Ameriprise’s new “Real Questions, Real Answers” ad campaign.
The investment services provider now manages assets of$783 billion, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s board authorized the repurchase of an additional$2.5 billion in shares, and announced a 12 percent increase in its regular quarterly dividend, raising it to58 cents.
Ameriprise said asset growth and client activity drove its adviser productivity up 15 percent, to operating net revenue of$454,000 per adviser for the trailing 12 months.
The company is expecting a second-quarter boost from the$5.5 billion block of business its Threadneedle operation won in April fromSt. James’s Place, a leadingU.K. wealth manager. Threadneedle will be managingSt. James’s Place’s strategic managed fund.
Ameriprise’s asset management unit, which includes the Columbia and Threadneedle brands, saw operating pretax profits grow 33 percent to $183 million, despite struggling with long-running net asset outflows from the two fund lines. The company has chalked up the long-running outflows primarily to legacy relationships the two lines have.
c)2014 the Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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