Schwab profit climbs 1 percent, shares rise

Shares of the biggest U.S. online brokerage rose 5.4 percent in premarket trading after Schwab said revenue from trading jumped 45 percent from last year.

Revenue from interest on assets, meanwhile, fell 15.6 percent, depressed by the drop in the U.S. federal funds rate, which is currently near zero.

Schwab earned $308 million, or 27 cents a share, in the quarter, up from $305 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenues fell 5 percent at $1.28 billion, but met estimates.

On average, analysts polled by Reuters Estimates expected the San Francisco-based company to earn 26 cents per share in the period.

The quarter included the steepest phase of last year's broad stock sell-off, helping to lift Schwab's trading revenue by 40 percent from the previous quarter. Daily average revenue trades, or the key DARTS figure, rose 27 percent from the previous quarter to about 358,300.

Net new assets dipped 11 percent from the previous quarter, while total client assets at year's end was $1.14 trillion, down 21 percent from last year. Schwab, which provides online brokerage services, banking and financial advice, relies more than its rivals on asset management.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)