Wall Street titan Merrill Lynch said today that it had banked a 44% rise in second quarter profits, as private client and investment banking revenues swelled its coffers.
The New York-based global banking group said quarterly net profits ballooned a better-than-expected 44% to $1.63 billion compared with a year ago. That translated into earnings per share of $1.63, a gain of 43% from the prior year.
Industry analysts had forecast that Merrill Lynch would post EPS of just $1.52 a share.
Despite the billion-dollar profit margin, net profits declined 1% from the first quarter, excluding the impact during the first quarter of $1.2 billion in charges.
'Merrill Lynch continued to perform well in the second quarter despite uncertainty in the markets,' the bank's CEO Stan O'Neal said.
Quarterly revenue struck a record $8.2 billion, up 29% from the second quarter 2005, while revenues for the first six months of 2006 also hit a record $16.1 billion, a rise of 28% compared to a year ago.
Global private client revenues rose 19% to $3 billion while investment banking revenues - which received a boost from merger and acquisition operations - spiked 33% to $4.6 billion.
In a sign of its booming business, Merrill said it had increased its global headcount by 500 during the quarter to 56,000 full-time employees.
