OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s fiscal first-quarter profit jumped nearly 38 percent as the online brokerage benefited from its acquisition of rival Scottrade and from tax cuts.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Monday it earned $297 million, or 52 cents per share, in the quarter. That's up from $216 million, or 41 cents per share, a year ago.

TD Ameritrade said that without one-time costs it would have earned 80 cents per share.

The results easily topped the 51 cents per share predicted by the seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

This was the first full quarter since the Scottrade acquisition last fall. TD Ameritrade also said it received about $78 million in benefits from the tax bill Congress passed before the end of last year.

"Trading was at record levels, and investor engagement has continued across all client segments as the market reached new highs," CEO Tim Hockey said. "Enhanced consumer interest in blockchain and cannabis-related securities drove a further surge in engagement in the final weeks of the quarter, particularly among first-time investors."

The number of trades TD Ameritrade handled each day jumped 49 percent to an average of 726,438 as Scottrade's transactions were added.

That helped the company generate revenue of $1.26 billion in the period, up from $859 million the previous year. That also surpassed Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.2 billion.

TD Ameritrade expects adjusted full-year earnings in the range of $2.55 to $3.05 per share. That was up from prior guidance of $2.10 to $2.50 a share. Analysts have been forecasting $2.64 a share, according to FactSet.

TD Ameritrade shares were up $1.32, or 2.4 percent, to $57.20 in after-hours trading following the earnings report.

They climbed slightly more than 9 percent since the beginning of the year and 21 percent in the past 12 months.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AMTD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AMTD