E*Trade Financial Corp reported a rise in second quarter profit on Wednesday as loan-loss provisions at the online U.S. broker dropped.

Earlier on Wednesday, a letter from E*Trade's largest shareholder was made public urging the discount retail broker it to put itself up for sale and take other steps to boost shareholder value, causing E*Trade shares to surge.

E*Trade reported a net profit of $47.1 million, or 16 cents a share in the quarter ended June 30. That compared with earnings of $35.1 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier when it was coming out of a slump.

Revenue was $518 million, down from $534 million in the year-earlier period.

Analysts on average expected E*Trade to earn 16 cents per share on revenue of $514.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Andre Grenon)

Morgan Stanley Fall