Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., the world’s largest brokerage, said on Thursday that first-quarter earnings jumped, helped by a surge in trading revenues.
Net income rose to $2.2 billion, or $2.26 a share, from $475 million, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier, when the company booked about $1.2 billion in after-tax compensation expenses.
Excluding those expenses, first-quarter earnings rose nearly 31 percent.
Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates on average expected earnings of $1.97 a share before special items.
Net revenue rose 24 percent to $9.85 billion, helped by a 42 percent increase in fixed income and equity trading.
Analysts had on average expected revenue of $9 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
Merrill Lynch shares have fallen more than 2 percent this year, compared with a 3 percent increase in the Amex Securities Broker-Dealer index.
