Dallas, Texas 10/22/2013 (Financialstrend) – TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE:AMTD) is a $15.57 billion market capped investment management and brokerage firm. On October 9, rating agency KBW became the latest ratings firm which has moved to upgrade TD Ameritrade. KBW analyst have taken back the “sell” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $24 to $27.
These ratings upgrades just ahead of the third quarter results announcements are a big vote of confidence to the management of this brokerage firm. The 3Q earnings call is slated for October 29 and investors in the stock would be hoping to glen wisdom on how this company plans to extend the good return on investment into the next few quarters. Over the past year, the brokerage firm had managed sales of $2.17 billion with net income of $617 million. Its gross margins for the past 12 month period has appreciated by 85% compared to previous year and profit margins have seen a 28% increase in value.
The stock has managed to pay out dividend of $0.36 per share over the past 12 months. This has translated to a 1.27% dividend yield for the same period. Even on the browsers, the stock has jumped up by 80% market value over the past 12 months. The increase in market value is also coupled with the increase in trading volumes. This is being seen as a good sign of retail traders finding interest in the stock. Another reason being ascribed to the stock appreciating by close to 47% in the past 6 months is because of a faltering increase in interest rates over the same time period.
At close of business on October 21, the stock was trading at $28.31 per share down 1.26% compared to previous day close. These current valuations have taken the stock just 1.2% shy of its 52 week high valuation.
