Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: UPDATE 2-Investment banking drags down Stifel Financial Q1

http://hypoventure-capital.com/?p=43

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/09/stifel-idUSL3E7G93FN20110509

* Q1 adj EPS $0.52 vs est. $0.61
* Institutional group rev falls 23.5 pct sequentially
* Investment banking rev fall 57 pct sequentially (Adds details, CEO quote from conference call, share history)
May 9 (Reuters) – Stifel Financial Corp posted a disappointing first-quarter profit as lower advisory fees hurt its investment banking revenue.
Stifel, which bought struggling Thomas Weisel Partners Group for about $318.2 million in stock last year, said revenue from its institutional group, including its investment banking business, fell 23.5 percent sequentially.
Pre-tax profit for the division fell 51 percent from the fourth quarter.
“Consistent with industry trends, our investment banking results in the quarter were separately lower, primarily impacted by a decline in advisory and municipal underwriting activity,” Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski said on a conference call.
Investment banking revenues fell 57 percent from the fourth quarter to $35.1 million.
The St Louis-based regional brokerage firm reported a net income of $31.4 million, or 50 cents a share, compared with a net income of $23.7 million, or 45 cents a share, a year ago.
The company, which bought 56 Midwestern retail branches with more than 300 advisers from UBS Financial Services in 2009 , earned 52 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $366.6 million.
Analysts on average expected Stifel to earn 61 cents a share, excluding items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total assets increased 41 percent to $4.5 billion as of March 31.
Stifel reported quarterly merger-related expenses of $1.5 million related to the Weisel acquisition.
Shares of Stifel closed at $43.01 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have shed 10 percent since the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results in February.