(Bloomberg) -- U.K. investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown Plc said that full-year profits would likely beat expectations thanks to a recent surge in U.S. stock trading.
The firm has seen high volumes of international share dealing since the end of January, driven by interest in American stocks, it said in a trading update Wednesday. It now expects profit before tax for the year through June to come in “modestly above” the top end of analyst expectations.
The highest profit forecast in Bloomberg-compiled estimates from 13 analysts is for 390 million pounds ($542 million).
Shares rose as much as 3.3% in early Wednesday trading in London. They've gained about 9% over the past year.
Hargreaves Lansdown is benefiting from a retail-trading surge that's been turbocharged by younger investors stuck at home during the pandemic. The firm added 84,000 new clients in the second half of last year, with almost half of them aged between 30 and 54 years old, it said last month.
Retail traders helped trigger a buying stampede earlier this year that saw some of the most shorted stocks like U.S.-listed GameStop Corp. surge to stratospheric heights. Hargreaves had reported GameStop among its top ten most viewed stocks in late January.
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