Piper Sandler Co`s

Piper Sandler delivered a standout first quarter in 2025, posting adjusted EPS of $4.09 against a consensus estimate of $2.845 — a 43.76% beat — even as revenue of $357.27 million came in 2.84% below expectations despite growing 7.2% year-over-year. The headline earnings story was driven by a record first quarter in advisory services, where revenues surged 38% year-over-year to $216.80 million, fueled by strength across financial services, healthcare, and chemicals groups and 55 completed transactions. A significant tailwind came from $25.40 million in tax benefits tied to restricted stock vesting, which pushed the effective tax rate to negative 24.9% and amplified the bottom-line beat. Partially offsetting the quarter's strength was a $29.60 million GAAP investment loss from lower public equity valuations in firm-managed alternative asset funds, compressing the GAAP pre-tax margin to 8.2% from 15.3% a year ago. Piper Sandler also returned $151.00 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends during the period.