Wealthfront's Assets Rose to Record $92.8B. A Bull Market for Stocks Helped Earnings. -- Barrons.com

Dow Jones
Jan 13

By Andrew Welsch

Wealthfront reported higher revenue and net income for the quarter ending Oct. 31 than the same period a year ago, thanks in part to a bull market for stocks that spurred customers to put more money in their investment accounts.

The wealth management company reported quarterly net income of $30.9 million, up 3% year over year, on record revenue of $93.2 million, up 16%.

Total platform assets rose by 21% year over year to $92.8 billion, a figure that includes Wealthfront's investment advisory and cash management offerings. The company had 1.38 million funded clients at the end of the quarter, a 20% year-over-year increase. Customers also increasingly redeployed money from Wealthfront's high-yield savings offering to their investment accounts.

"We continued to execute in our core business driving platform assets to a record at quarter-end amidst a dynamic macro environment," CEO David Fortunato said. "This included the best quarter in net cross account transfers from cash management to investment advisory in the company's history."

Shares of Wealthfront were up 0.9% in after-hours trading on light volume. Wealthfront went public last month.

This is breaking news. Read a preview of Wealthfront earnings below and check back for more analysis soon.

Wealthfront's high-yield cash savings offering for clients has been a cash cow for the wealth manager, and analysts will be paying close attention to it when the newly public company reports quarterly earnings for the first time after the market closes on Monday.

Wall Street analysts anticipate Wealthfront to report an adjusted loss of 65 cents and revenue of $92.4 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31, according to data from FactSet.

As of Friday afternoon, Wealthfront shares are down about 5% since they began trading publicly on Dec. 12. Shares ended their first trading session at $14.19.

Some analysts are bullish on the long-term prospects for the company, which offers investors automated investment portfolios, tax-loss harvesting, and other services. J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Kenneth B. Worthington writes in a Jan. 6 note that Wealthfront has had strong organic growth, drawing in about $30 billion of net new assets over the last two years for both its investment advisory and cash management offerings. Worthington, who rates Wealthfront's stock Overweight, sees potential in the company's recent push to begin offering its 1.4 million mostly young customers mortgages.

"On balance, we expect the rollout of mortgage will be a headwind to margins and operating expenses in the near-term but also acknowledge the potential benefits as the solution scales in the coming years," he writes. "Wealthfront has developed a steady track-record of launching good products at attractive fee rates and delivering a strong client experience to drive greater product adoption."

Worthington has a December 2026 price target of $16.

The nascent mortgage offering is the latest in a series of product launches at Wealthfront, which has introduced in recent years a socially responsible investing portfolio, automated bond portfolios, and securities lending.

The company's cash management offering has been a key driver of its growth.

Wealthfront offers customers attractive interest rates and up to $8 million in FDIC insurance by relying on third-party banks to provide savings accounts. Wealthfront earns a flat fee to participating banks. The company is currently offering new clients a 3.9% annual percentage yield (APY) for three months.

Because so much of Wealthfront's revenue comes from its cash savings offering, its business is sensitive to interest rates. "Higher rates over the past five years increased the value of holding high-yield cash, " Goldman Sachs analyst James Yaro writes in a Jan. 6 research note. The opposite is true of lower rates, says Yaro who has a Neutral rating on Wealthfront's stock.

"We see falling rates impacting the company's cash management revenue, in terms of a lower net interest margin, as well as potentially driving cash management deposit outflows either into Wealthfront's investment advisory channel, or leaving Wealthfront entirely, which results in the company's overall fee rate falling, given that cash management fee rates are 3x those of investment advisory," he writes.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

 

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January 12, 2026 16:58 ET (21:58 GMT)

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