OMAHA, Neb. —

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Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit dropped 23 percent, trimmed its watch toward the year because of the nation’s economic problems and said it would cut costs by about $60 million.

Its shares fell 38 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $12.27 in midday trading.

The Omaha-based company before-mentioned it earned $184.4 million, or 31 cents by interest, in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, down from $240.8 the great body of the people, or 40 cents per share, a year ago.

Thomson Reuters aforesaid analysts it surveyed expected Ameritrade to report net income of 31 cents per share forward average in the chief divide.

But Ameritrade divide its earnings guidance for the year to between 90 cents and $1.15 per share. That’s down from its foreboding last fall of earnings betwixt $1.10 and $1.42 per share in fiscal 2009.

In response, Ameritrade officials said it plans to cut $60 million from its expenses transversely the next year and a half, but the company did not immediately say where those cuts would be made. That represents about 6 percent of the company’s non-advertising expenses.

Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk said he’s not sure yet how sundry jobs bequeath be eliminated as allotment of the cuts, but the cuts will be made primarily in areas that don’t directly distribute cards with customers. And the company will withdrawal many apparent positions unfilled.

Tomczyk said Ameritrade plans to guard what helped the company weather the housekeeping storm such far.

“We’ll self-same much harbor the things that are working for us,” Tomczyk said in an interview.

He considered this a strong quarter, he said, although Ameritrade has been hurt by the recession.

“These headwinds are very real, and we see no signs that the overall housekeeping environment will improve over the balance of our fiscal year,” Tomczyk said.

Ameritrade said it generated $610.7 the masses income during the first quarter, thanks mainly to the high number of trades.

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