WisdomTree Announces Second Quarter 2012 Results

$338 million of net inflows

Record revenues of $20.4 million, up 22%

$0.1 million net income for the quarter, proforma income of $3.1 million

NEW YORK, July 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (Nasdaq:WETF), an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager, today reported net income of $0.1 million for the second quarter of 2012, down from $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2011 and $1.1 million for the first quarter of 2012. Excluding non-operating expenses related to litigation, shareholder proxy and exchange listing fees, proforma operating income¹ was $3.1 million for the second quarter of 2012, up from proforma operating income of $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2011 and $1.9 million for the first quarter of 2012.

WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg commented, "WisdomTree gathered $338 million predominantly in our dividend based equity strategies in a difficult market environment where, at an industry level, net inflows were almost entirely concentrated in domestic fixed income. While this market cycle was challenging for our product set, our ability to buck the trend in equities demonstrates our strategies are differentiated and desirable."

Mr. Steinberg continued, "In June, WisdomTree celebrated its sixth anniversary as an ETF sponsor, and our fundamentally weighted ETFs continue to build strong relative performance records. 24 of our 34 equity ETFs outperformed their capitalization-weighted or competitive benchmarks since their respective inception through June 30, 2012. I believe this powerful performance story will be an important driver for future growth."

Assets Under Management

ETF assets under management ("AUM") were $15.0 billion at June 30, 2012, down from $15.7 billion at March 31, 2012, due to $1.0 billion of negative market movement, partly offset by $0.3 million in net inflows. The average AUM for the quarter increased 6.0% to $15.1 billion.   

Summary Operating and Financial Highlights

Performance

75% of the $12.4 billion invested in our 34 equity ETFs on June 30, 2012 were in funds that, since their respective inceptions, outperformed their capitalization-weighted or competitive benchmarks through that date. 71%, or 24 of our 34 equity ETFs, outperformed their capitalization-weighted or competitive benchmarks since their respective inception through June 30, 2012. For more information about WisdomTree ETFs including standardized performance, please click here or visit www.wisdomtree.com.

Second Quarter Financial Discussion

Revenues

Total revenues increased 22.0% to a record $20.4 million as compared to the second quarter of 2011 and 6.4% compared to the first quarter of 2012 primarily due to higher average AUM, despite the AUM decline period over period due to negative market movement.  Our average fee earned changed to 0.54% in the second quarter compared to 0.55% in the second quarter of 2011 due to the change in mix of our ETFs. Our average fee was unchanged compared to the first quarter of 2012.

Margins

Our gross margin, which is our total revenues less fund management and administration expenses and third party sharing arrangements, was 67% in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to 57% and 63% in the second quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, respectively, primarily due to the change in mix of assets under management.

Our pre-tax margin was 1% in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to 4% in the second quarter of 2011 and 6% in the first quarter of 2012. Excluding non-operating expenses related to our patent litigation and ETF shareholder proxy, our proforma pre-tax operating margin was 15% in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to 5% in the second quarter of 2011 and 10% in the first quarter of 2012.

Expenses

Total expenses increased 26.4% to $20.3 million from $16.0 million in the second quarter of 2011 and increased 12.2% from $18.1 million in the first quarter of 2012. Excluding non-operating expenses related to our patent litigation, ETF shareholder proxy and initial exchange listing, expenses increased 8.5% compared to the second quarter of 2011 and were essentially unchanged compared to the first quarter of 2012.

During the second quarter, our insurance carrier agreed to fund a significant majority of the costs for defending our patent infringement lawsuit with Research Affiliates LLC, subject to a $0.3 million deductible and a reservation of rights. Since the lawsuit has been filed, we have incurred $1.6 million in litigation related expense of which $1.5 million is qualified for insurance coverage.  As such, we expect our insurance carrier will reimburse us $1.0 million for expenses through June 30, 2012, which has been recognized in the second quarter.

• Compensation and benefits expense increased 18.8% to $5.5 million compared to the second quarter of 2011. This increase was primarily due to higher stock based compensation expense due to equity awards granted to our employees as part of their 2011 year end incentive compensation as well as costs associated with higher headcount. Our headcount at the end of the second quarter of 2012 was 66 compared to 61 at the second quarter of 2011. 

Compensation and benefits expense decreased 6.5% compared to the first quarter of 2012. Included in the first quarter was higher payroll taxes from employees exercising stock options in connection with our secondary offering and 2011 year-end bonus payments in the first quarter. Partly offsetting this decrease was an increase in expenses associated with higher headcount.

• Fund management and administration expenses decreased 2.9% to $5.6 million compared to the second quarter of 2011. Included in the second quarter of 2011 was a non-recurring charge of $0.7 million related to reimbursing the WisdomTree India ETF for excess fees collected by the Company as a result of overestimating the Company's operating expense recapture fees for the India ETF's fiscal year ended March 31, 2011. Partly offsetting this decrease was a $0.2 million increase in portfolio management, fund administration and accounting, index licensing and distribution fees due to higher average assets under management. In addition, we incurred $0.2 million in higher auditing and legal related expenses. 

Fund management and administration expenses increased 2.4% compared to the first quarter of 2012 primarily due to security movement fees as a result of the WisdomTree international and emerging market ETFs annual rebalancing partly offset by fee reductions from our service provider.  

• Marketing and advertising expenses increased 14.1% to $1.5 million compared to the second quarter of 2011 and 16.7% compared to the first quarter of 2012 primarily due to higher levels of advertising related activities. 
   
• Sales and business development expenses decreased 7.8% to $0.8 million compared to the second quarter of 2011 and decreased 2.1% compared to the first quarter of 2012 primarily due to lower product development related expenses.
   
• Professional and consulting fees increased 45.0% to $1.4 million compared to the second quarter of 2011 and 26.3% compared to the first quarter of 2012. This increase was primarily due to executive recruiting fees related to our previously announced search for a new chief operating officer position as well as higher accounting and legal fees as a result of becoming a fully reporting, exchange-listed company. 
   
• Occupancy, communication and equipment expense increased 31.6% to $0.4 million compared to the second quarter of 2011 and 24.6% compared to the first quarter of 2012. Beginning in the second quarter, we began occupying office space we had sub-leased to a third party. 
   
• Third-party sharing arrangements expense decreased 18.7% to $1.2 million compared to the second quarter of 2011. This decrease was primarily due to lower AUM in our currency and international fixed income ETFs subject to the profit sharing arrangements with Bank of New York Mellon. These expenses decreased 29.6% compared to the first quarter of 2012. Included in the first quarter was a charge of $0.4 million related to terminating our agreement with Advisors Asset Management related to marketing our ETFs in the regional broker-dealer channel. This function is now handled by our own sales and marketing force.
   
• Other expenses increased 62.6% to $0.7 million compared to the second quarter of 2011 and 22.0% compared to the first quarter of 2012 primarily due to higher general and administrative expenses.
   
• ETF shareholder proxy - We incurred approximately $3.2 million in expenses related to the proxy solicitation of the WisdomTree ETF shareholders. We expect to incur an additional $0.2 to $0.3 million in the third quarter.
   
• Litigation and Insurance Reimbursement - We incurred approximately $0.8 million in expenses in the second quarter of 2012 related to our patent infringement lawsuit. We have recognized a $1.0 million reimbursement from our insurance carrier for a net credit of $0.2 million in the second quarter.
   
• We incurred $0.1 million in advisory expenses in the second quarter of 2011 related to listing our common stock on NASDAQ.

First Half Year Results

Total revenues increased 26.6% to $39.6 million in the first half of 2012 as compared to the first half of 2011. This increase was primarily due to higher average assets under management, which increased 31.4% which resulted primarily from $2.6 billion of net ETF inflows. Our average fee decreased to 0.54% from 0.56% due to a change in mix of our assets.

Total expenses increased 26.0% to $38.3 million in the first half of 2012 as compared to the first half of 2011.   Excluding non-operating expenses related to our patent litigation, ETF shareholder proxy and initial exchange listing, expenses increased 15.6% to $34.6 million from $29.9 million in the first half of 2011.  This increase was primarily due to higher compensation and benefits related expenses due to higher payroll taxes from employees exercising stock options in connection with our secondary offering as well as expenses associated with higher headcount; higher fund management and administration expenses due to higher average asset balances; higher professional fees as a result of becoming a fully reporting public company as well as higher variable stock based compensation granted to non-employees; and higher marketing, advertising, sales and business development expenses to support our growth.

Balance Sheet

As of June 30, 2012, WisdomTree had total assets of $59.4 million which consisted primarily of cash and cash equivalents of $39.3 million and investments of $9.8 million. The Company has no debt. There were approximately 124.4 million shares of common stock issued as of June 30, 2012. Fully diluted weighted average shares outstanding were 138.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2012.

Conference Call 

WisdomTree will discuss its results and operational highlights during a conference call on Friday, July 27, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. ET. The call-in number will be (877) 303-7209. Anyone outside the U.S. or Canada should call (970) 315-0420. The slides used during the presentation will be available at http://www.wisdomtree.com/investor-relations.  For those unable to join the conference call at the scheduled time, an audio replay will be available on http://www.wisdomtree.com/investor-relations.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on our management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements relate to future events or our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could materially affect results. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, the risks described below.  If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties occur, or if our underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual events or results may vary significantly from those implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance. You should read this press release completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

In particular, forward-looking statements in this press release may include statements about:

• anticipated trends, conditions and investor sentiment in the global markets;
   
• anticipated levels of inflows into and outflows out of our exchange traded funds;
   
• our ability to deliver favorable rates of return to investors;
   
• our ability to develop new products and services;
   
• our ability to maintain current vendors or find new vendors to provide services to us at favorable costs;
   
• competition in our business;
   
• the effect of laws and regulations that apply to our business; and
   
• our views on litigation to which we are subject.

Our business is subject to many risks and uncertainties, including without limitation:

• We have only a limited operating history and, as a result, recent historical growth may not provide an accurate representation of the growth we may experience in the future, which may make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects.
   
• Challenging market conditions associated with declining prices of securities can adversely affect our business by reducing the market value of the assets we manage or causing WisdomTree ETF shareholders to sell their fund shares and trigger redemptions.
   
• Fluctuations in the amount and mix of our AUM may negatively impact revenue and operating margin.
   
• Most of our assets under management are held in ETFs that invest in foreign securities and we therefore have substantial exposure to foreign market conditions and are subject to currency exchange rate risks.
   
• We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from products invested in emerging markets and are exposed to the market-specific political and economic risks as well as general investor sentiment regarding future growth of those markets.
   
• We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from a limited number of products and, as a result, our operating results are particularly exposed to the performance of those funds, investor sentiment toward the strategies pursued by those funds and our ability to maintain the assets under management of those funds.
   
• The WisdomTree ETFs have a limited track record, and poor investment performance could cause our revenue to decline.
   
• We depend on other third parties to provide many critical services to operate our business and the WisdomTree ETFs. The failure of key vendors to adequately provide such services could materially affect our operating business and harm WisdomTree ETF shareholders.
   
• We are currently, and may from time to time in the future be, involved in legal proceedings that could require significant management time and attention, possibly resulting in significant expense or in an unfavorable outcome, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations and cash flows. 

Other factors, such as general economic conditions, including currency exchange rate fluctuations, also may have an effect on the results of our operations. For a more complete description of the risks noted above and other risks that could cause our actual results to differ from our current expectations, please see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011.

The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. Therefore, these forward-looking statements do not represent our views as of any date other than the date of this press release. 

About WisdomTree

WisdomTree Investments, Inc. is a New York-based exchange-traded fund ("ETF") sponsor and asset manager.  WisdomTree currently offers 48 ETFs across Equities, Currency Income, Fixed Income and Alternatives asset classes. WisdomTree also licenses its indexes to third parties for proprietary products and promotes the use of WisdomTree ETFs in 401(k) plans. WisdomTree currently has approximately $14.8 billion in ETF assets under management. For more information, please visit www.wisdomtree.com.

WisdomTree® is the marketing name for WisdomTree Investments, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. and WisdomTree Retirement Services, Inc. WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. is a registered investment advisor and is the investment advisor to the WisdomTree Trust and the WisdomTree ETFs. The WisdomTree Trust is a registered open-end investment company. Each WisdomTree ETF is a series of the WisdomTree Trust. WisdomTree Retirement Services, Inc. supports the use of the WisdomTree ETFs in retirement plans by financial professionals.

The WisdomTree Investments, Inc. logo is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=11269

CONTACT: WisdomTree Investments, Inc.
         Stuart Bell / Jessica Zaloom
         +1.917.267.3702 / +1.917.267.3735
         sbell@wisdomtree.com / jzaloom@wisdomtree.com

Released July 27, 2012