Charles Stanley falls as commission dries up

Stockbroker Charles Stanley might have been taking a few orders to sell shares in the company after announcing a drop in revenues in the final three months of 2011.

Total revenues for the period fell from £32.3m at the equivalent point in 2010 to £27.3m in 2011.

The company says fees income increased by 5.8% over the period but what really did the damage was a big drop in commission income from £16.6m in the previous year to £10.6m by the end of December 2011.

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Total client funds under management has remained stable at £14.48bn versus £14.5bn at the same point of 2010.

Shares in Charles Stanley fell 7.92% on the morning of the trading update.

Rival broker Peel Hunt described the update as "mixed" and expects to reduce full year earnings forecasts by around 10%, though it notes that the stock is still by some distance the cheapest in the sector, and retains its "buy" recommendation.

"Overall, the statement reports higher AuM [Assets under Management] than expected, although revenues declined on lower commission income," Peel Hunt analyst Stuart Duncan observed. Peel Hunt had predicted AuM would ease to £14.3bn.

In Duncan's view "the key highlight was a small outflow of circa £0.2bn from the core managed funds, driven by a combination of lower inflows and a mix of lost clients and withdrawals from existing clients."

"Following this morning's statement, we would expect to reduce our current PBT/EPS [profit before tax/earnings per share] forecast of £15.5m/24.7p by c£2m. Consensus currently stands at £17.0m/27.0p. This would equate to a downgrade of approximately 10%, although the caveat remains that conditions for the rest of the year (March year-end) remain volatile and difficult to predict," Peel Hunt said.

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