Futu Holdings reports Q4 EPS 81c, consensus 96c

Reports Q4 revenue $303.8M, consensus $331.79M. Daily average revenue trades, or DARTs, in the fourth quarter of 2023 declined 22.2% year-over-year to 369,729. Total number of users increased 10.5% year-over-year to 21.6M. Leaf Hua Li, Futu‘s chairman and CEO, said, “In 2023, we added over 220 thousand paying clients, bringing the total number of paying clients to 1.7 million, up 15.0% year-over-year. We acquired over 59 thousand paying clients in the fourth quarter, down 8.6% quarter-over-quarter. In Hong Kong, client acquisition trended down due to sluggish Hong Kong stock market performance. In Singapore, client acquisition sustained the momentum in the third quarter as clients continued to demonstrate heightened interest in money market funds. Our efforts to reduce friction in the account opening process, combined with targeted marketing, led to an increase in client acquisition in Japan towards year-end, which further accelerated in the first quarter owing to the Japan stock market’s exceptional performance. We officially launched our brokerage business in Malaysia on February 26th, 2024. Leveraging the high brand awareness we garnered in the region through our rapid share gain in Singapore, we added over 30,000 clients within just one week of official launch, the fastest growth we have seen in any new market. Overall, we saw strong paying client growth across all markets in the first quarter as U.S. equities continued to post new highs and sentiments around Chinese equities rebounded. We are confident about client acquisition in 2024 and are guiding for 350 thousand net new paying clients.”