Merrill Lynch Profits Double for Year, Quarter

Merrill Lynch & Co. said the rallies in the stock and bond markets helped its yearly and fourth-quarter profits more than double from a year earlier.

Merrill Lynch, parent of the nation’s largest brokerage house, said net income jumped to $62.7 million in the fourth quarter from $29.6 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $2.02 billion from $1.64 billion.

Merrill Lynch’s profit for all of 1985 also more than doubled to $224.3 million from $95.3 million in 1984. Annual revenue surged 18% to $7.12 billion from $6.04 billion.

“The strong financial markets obviously helped the results of companies throughout the financial services industry,” William A. Schreyer, Merrill Lynch’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Merrill Lynch said all of its operations contributed higher revenue in both the latest fourth quarter and full year.

In the latest quarter, commission revenue from customer transactions surged 47% to $427.7 million, investment banking revenue jumped 39% from a year earlier to $265.5 million and fourth-quarter revenue from insurance activities climbed 71% to $66.3 million.