AJ Bell has recorded a "very strong financial performance" in the first half of its current financial year, with profit before tax increasing by 47% year-on-year to £61.4m.

Revenue at the online investment platform also jumped by 27% in the six months to 31 March to £131.3m, with a revenue margin of 32.2 bps, compared to 29 bps in H1 in the 2023 financial year.

Furthermore, the firm’s dividend reached 4.25 pence per share, which is a 21% increase on the prior year, while its assets under management also jumped by 23% to close to £5.8bn.

In the six months to the end of March, AJ Bell said that 27,000 new customers joined the firm, taking its total number of customers to almost 503,000.

Chief executive officer at AJ Bell, Michael Summersgill, said: "Our continued strong business performance led us to review our approach to capital allocation and the board has recently approved a new capital allocation framework which reaffirms our commitment to a progressive annual ordinary dividend.

"We have declared an increased interim dividend for the current year which is up 21% to 4.25 pence per share, equating to 40% of last year's total ordinary dividend.”

In its outlook, AJ Bell said that the macroeconomic environment has improved during the first half of its financial year, with inflation levels falling and global asset values increasing.

Alongside the potential of the Bank of England lowering its base rate, the firm said that this is likely to increase the appetite for investing.

AJ Bell said this will strengthen its revenue model, leading to "sustainable revenue growth" in different macroeconomic conditions.

Summersgill added: "We remain focused on our long-term organic growth strategy that has enabled us to increase our market share year after year. The platform market benefits from significant, structural growth drivers and the investments we are making in our brand and propositions put us in a great position to take advantage of that opportunity in the years to come."

---