Hargreaves Lansdown’s shares tumbled in August after it warned that the pandemic trading boom could not last. But a first-quarter trading update issued on Friday provided some comfort. Dealing volumes dropped 12 per cent on the same period a year ago, but were up 80 per cent on 2019.
Hargreaves expects many people who began investing during lockdown to keep it up. About a third of the young investors who joined it to buy a single — sometimes heavily shorted — stock have since diversified. With its median client now aged 46, down from 58 in 2007, Hargreaves hopes to increase the average length of time it keeps an investor, currently about a dozen years.
That would help the platform profit even more from the 30 per cent rise in customers since early last year, said Shore Capital. It estimates each client will generate revenues of £4,800 on average for Hargreaves, for a typical acquisition cost of £125.