Shares of online brokerage E-Trade Group (EGRP) zoomed $3.06, or 27%, to $14.50 on Nasdaq after the company reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $7.2 million, or 2 cents a share from continuing operations, compared with a loss of $26.7 million, or 12 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 76% to $340 million.
E-Trade had been expected to just break even as trading declined.
But the company said it ended September with 3.3 million accounts, more than double the 1.6 million it had a year earlier. Also, the average cost for each new account fell to $211 in the quarter from $291 in the fiscal third quarter, as E-Trade trimmed advertising and marketing spending. . . .
