In announcing its latest quarterly results today, Raymond James Financial Inc. reports that it now has 213 advisors in Canada, down from 229 in March 2001. By contrast, the firm’s U.S. sales force has grown from 4,545 to 4,797 over the same period.

The firm does not report segmented financial results for the U.S. and Canada. Overall, it reports unaudited net income of US$18.8 million for the second quarter ended March 29 on revenues of US$378.3 million. This is down from net income of US$22.7 million on revenues of US$437 million in the period last year.

“Although revenues for the second fiscal quarter ended March 28 were down 13%, virtually all of the decline is a result of a US$56.4 million decline in interest revenues arising from the reduction of interest rates since last year,” explained Thomas James, chairman and CEO.

“Securities commissions were down only one percent from last year, perhaps suggesting that the decline in retail business is bottoming out. Investment banking revenues were up 29% over last year’s second quarter as corporate America is beginning to re-equify its balance sheet,” according to James. “Current activity continues to be encouraging. Trading revenues appear to be down 46%, but this reflects a US$4 million write-down on our venture capital investment portfolio, rather than lower trading profits in stocks and bonds

“I anticipate that the market will continue to be volatile for the remainder of the year,” he concludes. “As the recovery in the general economy slowly begins to enhance corporate earnings, the stock markets will begin to improve and our results should participate in the recovery. As revenues increase, we should benefit from favorable operating leverage as our current infrastructure is capable of handling substantially more volume.”