New York, Jan. 21 (AP): Merrill Lynch & Company’s fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on a 17 per cent revenue growth and improved margins, leading the nation’s largest brokerage firm to report its best-ever full-year earnings.

Merrill said today its fourth-quarter net income rose to $1.24 billion, or $1.23 a share, from $539 million, or 56 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

The latest quarter’s results include a total gain of $45 million, or 5 cents a share, mostly due to insurance recoveries from September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that were partially offset by certain charges. A year earlier, similar items totalled a charge of $76 million, or 8 cents a share.

Analysts, on average, expected Merrill to post fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.02, according to a Thomson First Call poll.

Merrill’s revenue rose to $4.92 billion from $4.22 billion in the year-earlier fourth quarter. The topline was slightly below first call’s analyst forecast of $5.14 billion.

Pretax margins nearly doubled to 33.6 per cent from 17.6 per cent a year earlier. Merrill Lynch’s fourth-quarter annualised return on average common equity rose to 18.7 per cent from 9.5 per cent a year earlier.