Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors reported earnings per diluted share of $0.46 for the quarter ended March 31, 2004, missing analyst expectations of $0.49 to $0.52.

The reported earnings included $2.8 million in estimated costs for review of mutual fund trading practices and $1.5 million in legal and regulatory expenses.

Net income was up six percent to $51.7 million from the same period last year.

Total managed assets were down two percent, or $4.0 billion from year end 2003; compared to March 31, 2003, they were down one percent, or $1.8 billion.

Federated gained $2.1 billion in separate account assets since the fourth quarter of last year, or 9.4 percent, but lost $6.1 billion in mutual fund assets, or 3.5 percent.

Investors pulled money from money market mutual funds: $7.1 billion in this quarter alone, or $10.7 billion from the first quarter last year to this year.

"Factors which influence the relative demand for Federated's money market products include uses of cash by corporations and other institutional clients for purposes such as tax payments, as well as the relative attractiveness of direct market alternative investments for yields," officials stated in the release.

Revenues were $227 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2004, compared to $194 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2003. Federated earned 40 percent of revenue from money market assets, 35 percent from equity assets, 20 percent from fixed-income assets and 5 percent from other products.

Shareholders were expected to elect David M. Kelly as a new independent director in the company's annual meeting on Monday. 

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