Stifel Financial Corp. has trimmed its advisor ranks amid an uptick in revenues for asset management and service fees.
The St. Louis-based brokerage and investment bank reduced its total number of advisors last quarter to 2,182, a tick lower than the 2,187 it had at the end of last year.
While the latest headcount is up 2% from 2,130 a year ago, the company hired only 15 advisors last quarter, less than half the number it hired during the last three months of 2020. The new bodies brought in $13 million in assets, the company said in its latest quarterly earnings
“While this was fewer by those than we’ve typically recruited in recent quarters, I’d remind you that recruiting is cyclical and it does examine over a longer time frame,” CEO Ron Kruszewski told investors during a conference call, according to a
Stifel’s headcount of independent brokers also nudged down to 92 from 93 in the prior quarter and 94 a year ago. The company focuses on what it calls a “middle of the road” approach of offering both commission and fee-based services.
The firm's wealth management unit, which accounts for just over half of total revenues, reported net income of $583 million for the first quarter, up $8.3 million on the year-ago period. Overall revenues were a record $1.1 billion, up more than 24% from a year ago.
Stifel also reported a record $378.6 billion in total client assets for the first quarter, a 5.9% increase over the prior quarter and a 37% increase over a year ago.
Revenues from asset management and service fees were a record $278.1 million, up 11.3% compared to the prior quarter, and up 17% from a year ago. Stifel said the increase came primarily from higher asset values and fee-based asset flows.
By one metric, it saw a sharp drop in quarterly revenues from advisory fees for investment banking. Those fell nearly 25% to $130.4 million from $173.3 million in last quarter of 2020. Still, that’s a rebound of 75% from a year ago’s $70.6 million.
Last month, the company “
“Our future recruiting will now include independent advisors that we previously really didn't engage with,” Kruszewski said, according to the transcript. “We’re already hosting visits for that market channel.” He added that “we have a number of advisors that would want to talk to us about potentially an independent space” and that company executives “often just tell them to go to competitors, but we're not going to do that anymore.”
Asked about hiring plans, he said that “I see no change in the trajectory of our recruiting or in our pipeline.”
