TD Ameritrade Launches Online Services Though WeChat in US

Shares of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation AMTD gained 1.7% on full day trading session following its announcement to extend account management and research services to retail customers in the United States through WeChat.

The users will be able to check their account balances and positions, get live updates on U.S. markets and learn about investing with educational videos. The app would also allow customers to chat with an automated agent or a live agent at any time.

Prior to this, the brokerage firm had first offered services through WeChat in Hong Kong in August 2018. Growing customer base of the Chinese social and messaging platform made it lucrative for TD Ameritrade, enabling it to widen its reach.

The company’s progress in artificial intelligence and live client support services is likely to support its financials. Clients at TD Ameritrade are also able to avail services through some of the other third-party platforms including Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, Apple Business Chat and Twitter Direct Message.

Per Sunayna Tuteja, head of strategic partnerships and emerging technologies at TD Ameritrade, “We want to meet our clients where they are and engage with them on their terms. Our goal in applying technologies like AI and machine learning to the conversational platforms people use every day is to help make investing simpler and more accessible to more people.”

In October 2018, the company made investment in a regulated derivatives exchange and clearing organization — ErisX — to make digital currency products more accessible to retail clients. Notably, the plan was to provide traders access to cryptocurrency spot contracts as well as futures contracts on a single exchange.

Strong trading volumes, client focus and inorganic growth efforts bode well for TD Ameritrade in the quarters ahead. Though rising expenses might hamper bottom-line growth, higher interest rates are likely to provide stability to the top line.

Shares of TD Ameritrade have rallied 7% so far this year against 15.8% decline recorded by the industry.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the same space are E*TRADE Financial Corporation ETFC, Greenhill & Co. GHL and Interactive Brokers Group IBKR, each flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

In the past 30 days, E*TRADE’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has been revised 1.3% upward for 2018. Further, the company’s share price has rallied 5.9% over the past year.

Greenhill & Co.’s current-year earnings estimates have moved 6.3% upward over the past 60 days. Further, the company’s shares have jumped 23.4% in a year’s time.

Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Interactive Brokers for the current year has been raised nearly 1% upward. Over the past two years, shares of the company have gained 55.2%.

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