Trading Services Drive State Street's Earnings Beat

By Michael Calia And Angela Chen 

State Street Corp. said strength in its trading-services and forex trading segments spurred strong earnings growth in the fourth quarter, despite unfavorable currency effects.

Results beat expectations.

"Despite the low interest-rate environment in 2014, our revenue experienced solid growth compared with 2013 from both asset servicing and asset management," said Chief Executive Joseph L. Hooley. State Street added some $400 billion of new asset-servicing mandates last quarter and net new assets to be managed were $7 billion.

Overall, State Street reported earnings of $525 million, down from $545 million, a year ago. On a per-share basis, however, earnings were $1.24 a share compared with $1.22 a year earlier.

On an operating basis, profit rose to $1.37 a share versus $1.15 a share.

Revenue improved 6.9% to $2.63 billion, while operating revenue grew 13% to $582 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters recently estimated a per-share profit of $1.26 and revenue of $2.67 billion.

The firm said it had $2.74 trillion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, about 0.2% less than it had during the same period a year ago. Assets under custody and administration rose to $28.19 trillion from $27.43 trillion.

Servicing fees grew 5.6% to $1.3 billion due to new business and stronger U.S. equity markets, though partially offset by the stronger dollar. Management fees grew 3.1% to $299 million, largely due to the same reasons.

In its trading-services business, revenue jumped 24%. Revenue jumped 34% in forex trading.

Shares of State Street, inactive premarket, are up about 6% in the past 12 months through Thursday's close.

Write to Michael Calia at [e-mail] and Angela Chen at [e-mail]

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