Knight Capital reports 1Q loss, beats expectaions

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Knight Capital posted a loss for the first quarter as it continues to work through its acquisition and the costs related to a major technical meltdown last year, but the financial services company topped Wall Street expectations with those charges removed.

The net loss for the three months ended March 31 totaled $9.4 million, or 3 cents per share. That compares with net income of $33.1 million, or 36 cents per share last year.

Excluding charges from a $1.4 billion buyout by Getco and a technical malfunction last year that sent markets swinging wildly, the company's per-share profit was 6 cents per share, a penny better than analysts had projected.

However, revenue fell 5.7 percent to $285.2 million and that was well below the $309 million that Wall Street was looking for.

Knight takes stock trading orders from big brokers like TD Ameritrade and E-Trade. It routes the orders to exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange.

The technical malfunction, which occurred in August, nearly destroyed the company and intensified calls for safeguards on trading floors. There have been a number of serious glitches involving other companies since then.

Last week, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange was shut down for three hours due to software problems.

CEO Thomas Joyce said that the company has made a strong comeback since the August incident.

"During the first quarter, revenues from continuing operations were strong despite a decline in consolidated U.S. equity volume year over year and the lowest quarterly market volatility in more than five years," Joyce said.

Also during the quarter the company agreed to sell its institutional fixed income sales and trading to Stifel Nicolaus & Co.