Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh Q3 2026 của Stifel Financial (SF): Doanh thu kỷ lục mảng Quản lý tài sản và Triển vọng Q4

Điểm tin chính

• Stifel Financial công bố doanh thu thuần non-GAAP quý 3/2026 đạt 1,43 tỷ USD và EPS quý 3 đạt mức kỷ lục 1,46 USD, tăng 12% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái. Biên lợi nhuận trước thuế đạt 22,5%.
• Doanh thu từ đầu năm đến nay tăng 9% lên 4,3 tỷ USD. EPS tăng 7% lên 4,33 USD, hoặc tăng 22% nếu không tính khoản chi phí pháp lý của năm trước, trong khi tỷ suất sinh lời trên vốn cổ phần hữu hình phổ thông đạt 24,1%.
• Mảng Quản lý Tài sản Toàn cầu (Global Wealth Management) tạo ra doanh thu kỷ lục 980 triệu USD, tăng 8%, nhờ sự đóng góp từ doanh thu quản lý tài sản và thu nhập lãi thuần. Tài sản của khách hàng đạt 576 tỷ USD.
• Thu nhập lãi thuần đạt 302 triệu USD khi tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay trong quý đạt 1,3 tỷ USD. Ban lãnh đạo dự báo thu nhập lãi thuần quý 4 sẽ đạt từ 295 triệu USD đến 305 triệu USD.
• Doanh thu mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức giảm 14% xuống 430 triệu USD do biến động lãi suất mạnh trong tháng 9 gây ra các khoản điều chỉnh giá trị giao dịch và làm giảm doanh thu phí giao dịch. Doanh thu ngân hàng đầu tư đạt tổng cộng 300 triệu USD.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu quý 4 sẽ xấp xỉ mức kỷ lục 1,56 tỷ USD của cùng kỳ năm trước và kỳ vọng EPS sẽ cao hơn, nhờ kỷ luật chi phí và việc mua lại cổ phiếu.

Dữ liệu tài chính chính

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Quản lý Tài sản Toàn cầu

Doanh thu Quản lý Tài sản Toàn cầu tăng 8% lên mức kỷ lục 980 triệu USD. Tổng tài sản của khách hàng tăng 6% lên 576 tỷ USD, trong khi tài sản thu phí tăng 9% lên 240 tỷ USD. Nếu không tính các tài sản liên quan đến SIA, mức tăng lần lượt là 8% và 12%.

Dòng vốn thuần trong quý ghi nhận âm nhẹ, mặc dù ban lãnh đạo mô tả nguồn cung tuyển dụng cố vấn vẫn rất khả quan. Trong 12 tháng qua, Stifel đã thu hút thêm 90 cố vấn, bao gồm 28 cố vấn giàu kinh nghiệm với doanh thu 12 tháng gần nhất đạt 19 triệu USD. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết công ty đang hướng tới các nhóm quy mô lớn hơn trong khi vẫn duy trì tính kỷ luật trong bối cảnh cạnh tranh tuyển dụng gay gắt.

Công ty đã mở rộng danh mục cho vay thêm khoảng 3,6 tỷ USD trong năm 2026, tiệm cận mục tiêu 4 tỷ USD cho cả năm. Tổng các kênh tiền gửi tăng khoảng 1,6 tỷ USD. Stifel cũng xác định khoảng 2,9 tỷ USD tiền gửi ngoài bảng cân đối kế toán, 18 tỷ USD trong các quỹ thị trường tiền tệ và 7 tỷ USD trái phiếu kho bạc ngắn hạn là các nguồn vốn tiềm năng.

Stifel đã thực hiện khoản đầu tư chiến lược vào Meow Technologies và ký hợp đồng cấp phép dài hạn cho nền tảng của công ty này. Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng công nghệ quản lý nguồn vốn nhãn trắng sẽ củng cố mảng ngân hàng tài trợ quỹ và đầu tư mạo hiểm, cải thiện khả năng huy động tiền gửi cũng như mở rộng năng lực trên khắp mảng quản lý tài sản và kinh doanh tổ chức.

Mảng Kinh doanh Tổ chức

Doanh thu mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức giảm 14% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái xuống 430 triệu USD. Doanh thu ngân hàng đầu tư giảm 6% xuống 300 triệu USD, mặc dù doanh thu mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức lũy kế từ đầu năm tăng 8% và doanh thu ngân hàng đầu tư tăng hơn 23%.

Doanh thu tư vấn tăng 10% so với quý trước lên 173 triệu USD, nhờ hoạt động trong các lĩnh vực tài chính, công nghiệp, tiêu dùng và y tế. Doanh thu từ huy động vốn cổ phần giảm 13% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái xuống 69 triệu USD, trong khi doanh thu bảo lãnh phát hành chứng khoán thu nhập cố định duy trì ổn định ở mức 58 triệu USD.

Doanh thu giao dịch chứng khoán thu nhập cố định giảm xuống 80 triệu USD từ mức khoảng 123 triệu USD. Mức giảm này bao gồm 9 triệu USD tiền điều chỉnh giá trị giao dịch liên quan đến biến động lãi suất trong tháng 9 và mức nền so sánh cao của quý cùng kỳ năm trước với 32 triệu USD lợi nhuận từ tái cơ cấu và giao dịch liên quan đến tàu bay.

Doanh thu giao dịch cổ phiếu giảm xuống 41 triệu USD từ 59 triệu USD, phản ánh việc tái cơ cấu tại châu Âu, khối lượng giao dịch thấp hơn và khoảng 7 triệu USD điều chỉnh giá trị danh mục hỗ trợ giao dịch cổ phiếu. Biên lợi nhuận trước thuế lũy kế từ đầu năm của mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức tăng 530 điểm cơ bản lên 18,9%.

Phân bổ Vốn

Stifel đã mua lại 1,6 triệu cổ phiếu trong quý đồng thời tài trợ 1,3 tỷ USD cho tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay. Công ty còn 6,2 triệu cổ phiếu trong chương trình mua lại đã được phê duyệt.

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các ưu tiên sử dụng vốn bao gồm tăng trưởng bảng cân đối kế toán, trả cổ tức, đầu tư công nghệ và mua lại cổ phiếu. Công ty vẫn thận trọng đối với các thương vụ M&A không đáp ứng yêu cầu về tỷ suất sinh lời.

Dự báo của Ban Lãnh đạo

• Ban lãnh đạo dự báo thu nhập lãi thuần quý 4 sẽ đạt từ 295 triệu USD đến 305 triệu USD, nhờ tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay, biên lãi thuần ổn định và phí cho vay.
• Với giả định không lặp lại đợt biến động lãi suất mạnh như tháng 9, ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu giao dịch của mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức trong quý 4 sẽ đạt từ 145 triệu USD đến 150 triệu USD.
• Tỷ lệ chi phí đãi ngộ cả năm dự kiến sẽ ở mức cận dưới trong khoảng dự báo của công ty.
• Giả định giá cổ phiếu ổn định, ban lãnh đạo dự báo thuế suất thực tế trong quý 4 là 19% đến 22%, phản ánh lợi ích thuế thặng dư liên quan đến thù lao bằng cổ phiếu.
• Số lượng cổ phiếu pha loãng trong quý 4 dự kiến vào khoảng 158,8 triệu cổ phiếu, với giả định không mua lại thêm cổ phiếu và giá cổ phiếu ổn định.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu quý 4 sẽ xấp xỉ mức kỷ lục 1,56 tỷ USD của cùng kỳ năm trước và kỳ vọng EPS sẽ cao hơn.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

Ban lãnh đạo nhấn mạnh căng thẳng địa chính trị, lãi suất cao hơn, giá năng lượng, những lo ngại lạm phát bùng phát trở lại và định giá tài sản ở mức cao. Tốc độ biến động lãi suất trong tháng 9 đã làm giảm hoạt động thị trường và tạo ra các khoản điều chỉnh giá trị giao dịch trong danh mục tự doanh của mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức.

Cạnh tranh thu hút cố vấn tài chính vẫn ở mức cao và có thể làm tăng chi phí tuyển dụng. Biến động thị trường cũng có thể làm chậm quá trình chuyển dịch của cố vấn và các quyết định của khách hàng.

Theo ban lãnh đạo, danh mục thương vụ tiềm năng của mảng ngân hàng đầu tư vẫn duy trì tích cực, nhưng thời điểm thực hiện giao dịch nhạy cảm với các điều kiện tài chính, bầu cử và niềm tin của khách hàng. Hoạt động thị trường chứng khoán thu nhập cố định cũng yếu hơn so với kỳ vọng của ban lãnh đạo vào đầu năm.

Điểm tin Hỏi - Đáp với Chuyên gia Phân tích

• Tuyển dụng cố vấn: Ban lãnh đạo cho biết hoạt động tuyển dụng vẫn tích cực nhưng ngày càng tập trung vào các đội nhóm lớn hơn, năng suất cao hơn. Stifel có kế hoạch duy trì kỷ luật về tỷ suất sinh lời thay vì chỉ cạnh tranh bằng các gói đãi ngộ tuyển dụng cao hơn.
• Biên lợi nhuận cấu trúc: Ban lãnh đạo cho rằng tỷ lệ chi phí đãi ngộ thấp hơn là nhờ các sáng kiến tối ưu hiệu quả, tái cơ cấu hoạt động quốc tế và tăng trưởng thu nhập lãi thuần. Mức kết thúc năm 2026 được mô tả là điểm khởi đầu hữu ích cho các tính toán của năm 2027.
• Ngân hàng tài trợ quỹ và đầu tư mạo hiểm: Ban lãnh đạo coi các mảng kinh doanh này đang ở giai đoạn đầu của sự phát triển. Các khoản đầu tư công nghệ dự kiến sẽ hỗ trợ khả năng tạo nguồn tiền gửi có thể mở rộng mà không cần bổ sung mạng lưới chi nhánh vật lý.
• Nguồn vốn tiền gửi: Khoảng 500 triệu USD tiền gửi tự động đã rút khỏi nền tảng sau khi hoàn tất việc chuyển giao tài sản SIA. Dù vậy, ban lãnh đạo vẫn nhấn mạnh các kênh tiền gửi đa dạng hơn của mình và sự ổn định của biên lãi thuần bất chấp những thay đổi trong cơ cấu nguồn vốn.
• Doanh thu giao dịch: Ban lãnh đạo nhận định khoảng 145 triệu USD đến 150 triệu USD là khoảng doanh thu giao dịch chuẩn hóa của mảng Khách hàng Tổ chức, không bao gồm các khoản điều chỉnh giá trị danh mục và các khoản lợi nhuận khó dự đoán hơn từ tái cơ cấu hoặc liên quan đến tàu bay.
• Chiến lược AI: Stifel đang sử dụng AI để cải thiện năng suất của cố vấn, chuẩn bị cho các cuộc họp, theo dõi công việc và phân tích. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết họ coi AI là công cụ hỗ trợ các cố vấn chứ không phải để thay thế họ.
• Ưu tiên sử dụng vốn: Ban lãnh đạo chỉ ra rằng tăng trưởng dư nợ cho vay có thể củng cố vị thế thương hiệu và tạo ra lợi nhuận hấp dẫn, trong khi mua lại cổ phiếu vẫn là một lựa chọn tích cực dựa trên lượng vốn thặng dư và hạn mức ủy quyền còn lại của công ty.

Toàn văn Biên bản Cuộc họp Báo cáo Kết quả Kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Stifel Financial Q3 '26 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Joel Jeffrey, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Joel Jeffrey

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Stifel's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. On behalf of Stifel Financial Corp., I will begin the call with the following information and disclaimers. This call is being recorded. During today's presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplement, copies of which are available at stifel.com.

Today's presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Stifel Financial Corp. does not undertake to update the forward-looking statements in this discussion. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures that appear in the earnings release.

I'll now turn the call over to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ron Kruszewski.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Thanks, Joel. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our results year-to-date and for the third quarter, again underscore the strength of Stifel's diversified business model. We're on track for another record year. Year-to-date revenue was $4.3 billion, up 9%, earnings per share of $4.33, which is up 7%. And if you exclude the impact of last year's legal charge, EPS is up 22% with return on tangible common equity of 24.1%. Revenue and pretax margins in both of our operating segments are up year-to-date and investments we've made in our efficiency initiatives continue to generate strong returns.

The third quarter began with healthy client activity but conditions got choppier in September as geopolitical tensions, rising in the new prices and renewed inflation concerns led to the Federal Reserve's first rate increase in 3 years. It was a speed of the movement rates more than their absolute level that unsettled markets. Through it all, corporate earnings and employment state supportive and the underlying U.S. economy continue to show real resilience.

Against that backdrop, we delivered our highest ever third quarter earnings per share of $1.46, up 12% versus the prior year. Net revenue of $1.43 billion was in line with our guidance of another record quarter in our Global Wealth Management segment offset market-driven slowdown in our institutional business. Our bottom line growth was the result of improved operating leverage as we posted our lowest compensation ratio since the fourth quarter of 2022, which in turn drove a pretax margin of 22.5%.

The strength of our business allowed us to continue to generate and deploy significant excess capital. In the third quarter, we increased loans by $1.3 billion, and net interest income exceeded our guidance. setting a third quarter record that was essentially in line with our highest ever quarterly total. Additionally, we repurchased 1.6 million shares as our strong capital position enables us to support clients return capital to shareholders and invest in growth even when markets are volatile.

That brings me to our recent strategic investment in Meow Technologies, one of the leading business banking fintech in the United States. Along with our investment, we entered into a long-term licensing agreement with the company. Under this agreement, we will have access to all current and future capabilities of the platform. This will provide our bank with a leading-edge white label treasury management platform for our venture fund banking and other commercial clients. This transaction accelerates the build of one of our fastest-growing businesses, our venture banking platform.

Additionally, this technology broadens our capabilities across our institutional and wealth segments, giving Stifel an AI platform and bringing family office capabilities into our wealth management platform. We believe it is a significant enhancement to our growing venture and fund banking platform.

Slide 2 should look familiar since we used it about 4 years ago to point out that we saw the disconnect between our performance and our valuation compared with, in this case, Raymond James and Morgan Stanley, 2 partners I respect and whose business models look a lot like ours. Since the end of 2016, earnings per share are up 406% and tangible book value was up 154%, which is better than either of these peers and our return on tangible common equity over the last 12 months is more than 26% and is the highest of the 3 on this page. Even so, we trade at 9x forward earnings compared to 10.2 for Raymond James of 13 from Morgan Stanley. Look, even through challenging times, we are growing and have an elite ROTCE. Simply the numbers don't support the valuation gap that I see.

With that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

James Marischen

Thanks, Ron, and good morning, everyone. Non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.46 came in ahead of consensus, a stronger investment banking revenues, higher net interest income and well-controlled expenses, more than offset softer transactional revenue. Total non-GAAP revenues of $1.43 billion were flat with a year ago and 1% below consensus. Investment banking revenue exceeded expectations by $12 million or 4% as both advisory and underwriting revenue surpassed Street expectations. Net interest income of $302 million came in above the high end of our guidance and $4 million above consensus primarily due to strong loan growth and higher loan fee income.

Transactional revenue came in 10% below expectations and decreased 17% from the prior year. I'll cover the components in more detail when we get to the institutional segment. Asset Management revenue increased 14% from the prior year, driven by market appreciation and net new asset growth was essentially in line with consensus. Expenses were again well controlled, and we continue to see the benefits of the efficiency initiatives of the past few years. Our comp ratio of 56.6% and was in line with consensus and improved from 57% in the second quarter. Noncompensation expense declined 4% sequentially and beat The Street estimate by 3% and as lower credit provisions, travel and entertainment and nonbank reserve expenses contributed to the decline. The effective tax rate was 24.4%, which was slightly below consensus but within our guidance.

Turning to Slide 4. Global Wealth Management generated record net revenue of $980 million, up 8% year-on-year. Results were driven by record asset management revenue and record third quarter net interest income, partially offset by a decline in transactional revenue. We ended the quarter with total client assets of $576 billion and fee-based assets of $240 billion, up 6% and 9%, respectively, as we benefited from stronger equity markets, and net new asset growth. Excluding the impact of the assets associated with SIA, total client assets and fee-based assets increased 8% and 12%, respectively. Net flows were slightly negative in the quarter, but our recruiting pipeline remains very strong, even with competition for advisers running high.

Over the prior 12 months, we've added 90 total advisers, including 28 experienced advisers with trailing production of $19 million. We increased our loan book meaningfully in the quarter as we generated nearly $1 billion in incremental fund banking loan more than $200 million in residential mortgages. Based on part of this incremental growth and a stable NIM, in addition to the higher loan fee income in the third quarter, we expect fourth quarter net interest income to be in a range of $295 million to $305 million.

As you can see on Slide 4, we have significantly grown our net interest income since the beginning of 2024 through balance sheet growth as our net interest margin has remained relatively consistent. For the year, we've already grown our loan book by roughly $3.6 billion, which is just shy of our full year guidance of $4 million. Our strong deposit gathering capabilities continued as our combined deposit channels are up roughly $1.6 billion. Given our mix of assets and liabilities, we are relatively rate agnostic, and we've been able to maintain a consistent NIM as our funding mix has shifted. As we look forward, our ability to fund further growth is supported by approximately $2.9 billion of deposits held off balance sheet and roughly $18 billion of money market funds and 7 billion short-term treasuries.

Turning to Slide 5. Through the first 3 quarters of 2026, institutional revenue is up 8% and driven by an increase of more than 23% in investment banking. In the third quarter, the segment generated $430 million in revenue, down 14% year-on-year. In the quarter, Investment Banking revenue in the segment totaled $300 million, down 6% year-on-year. Advisory revenue of $173 million increased 10% sequentially, with continued strength in financials industrials, consumer and health care. Equity capital raising revenue was $69 million, down 13% from a year ago, though issuer engagement is increasing, led by financials and health care. Fixed income underwriting revenue of $58 million was in line with last year's third quarter results.

While higher interest rates weighed on new issue volume in the third quarter, fourth quarter activity is off to a strong start. We remain the #1 negotiated issue manager and public finance by deal count with more than 13% market share year-to-date. Overall, we are optimistic about investment banking as our pipelines remain very strong, and we're seeing increased engagement from sponsors and improved expectations for depository M&A. Fixed income transactional revenue of $80 million was down from approximately $123 million last year, primarily due to $9 million in trading marks in the quarter. as a result of the sharp move in interest rates in September and $32 million in restructuring and aircraft gains in the prior year quarter.

Equity transactional revenue was $41 million, down from $59 million a year ago primarily due to our European restructuring, lower equity volumes and approximately $7 million of training marks in our equity facilitation inventory. Absent another rate move like September, we'd expect fourth quarter institutional transactional revenue be in a range of $145 million to $150 million. Year-to-date, our pretax margin of 18.9% is up 530 basis points from the same period a year ago. as we've meaningfully reduced our comp and noncomp ratios primarily as a result of the -- our international restructuring.

Moving on to expenses. Our improved operating efficiency showed up again and a lower comp ratio for the quarter, which was our lowest since the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full year, we are projecting our comp ratio to be at the low end of our full year comp guidance. Non-compensation expenses totaled $298 million, flat with the same period a year ago, as lower provision and investment making gross ups were offset by higher operating expenses. Our operating noncompetitio of 19.4% was within our full year guidance of 18% to 20%. Further, assuming a stable stock price, we expect to see a fourth quarter effective tax rate in the range of 19% to 22% based on the excess tax benefit related to stock-based compensation.

Turning to Slide 7. Our capital position remains strong and provides meaningful strategic flexibility. The Tier 1 leverage ratio came in at 10.8%, while the Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 17% reflecting the deliberate deployment of capital into loan growth. Based on a 10% Tier 1 leverage target, we ended the quarter with nearly $360 million of excess capital, and that's after funding $1.3 billion of loan growth buying back 1.6 million shares during the quarter. Finally, we have 6.2 million shares remaining under the current buyback authorization, assuming no additional repurchases and a stable stock price. Our fully diluted share count for the fourth quarter is expected to be approximately 158.8 million shares.

And with that, Ron, back to you.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Thanks, Jim. Before I turn the call over to the operator for questions, let me comment on our outlook. In our Wealth Management segment, competition for advisers is running at elevated levels. And while our recruiting pipelines remain robust, we're staying disciplined to make sure that our growth generates the appropriate return. We believe AI will make our advisers more products, not replace them. The client when experienced advisers and a broad set of adjustment options in uncertain times.

Global wealth management has been and will continue to be the foundation of Stifel's business and its recurring revenue provides us consistent, predictable growth even in volatile markets. We're on track for another record year in this segment remain on target to reach our goal of $1 trillion in client assets. A key component of our wealth segment is People Bank & Trust, which supports our wealth and institutional clients. We've significantly grown our loan and deposit gathering capabilities in recent years as we continue to execute on our long-term strategy to grow net interest income with a stable net interest margin without taking undue credit risk.

Our institutional business is a meaningful driver of top and bottom line growth and strong markets. In the third quarter, September sharp move in rates produced trading marks on our securities inventory, which we don't expect to read in the fourth quarter. Advisement capital raising, we have strong backlog and improving client engagement. And going forward, we see increased activity levels across our diversified investment bank. Putting everything together, last year's fourth quarter was an all-time record at $1.56 billion in revenue, and we expect to match it this year even with volatility that slowed what was a very strong investment banking market in the first half. We also expect earnings per share to be higher as we've kept our cost discipline and repurchased 6.8 million shares.

So let me close by saying that as I look forward, I'm optimistic. We're mindful of geopolitical risk, higher interest rates and energy prices and elevated asset valuation. But healthy client engagement, strong wealth management fundamental and an active pipeline of strategic and sponsor-led transactions give us real reason for confidence. People diversified model, recurring revenue disciplined capital management have us positioned to keep compounding value for shareholders regardless of market conditions.

Operator, with that, please open the line for the questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from Mike Brown with UBS.

Phần hỏi đáp

Michael Brown

Ron, I guess you talked a little bit about the recruitment environment. As you look at the quarter here, it looks like to us the implied growth was a little bit softer this quarter. but obviously, the environment remains very competitive. So maybe could you just on some of the recruitment trends you're seeing in the market today and then maybe give us kind of an update on the real-term hiring activity. you talked about the pipeline as robust. And maybe how does that compare to recent quarters? And what's your kind of view on converting that pipeline as we look at the balance of the year and into early '27?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

I feel that a lot of things recruiting is strong, and it has been strong for us. I mean, not only over quarters, over years. I mean that it's hard to look at quarter-to-quarter. It always has been. But when I look at our recruiting numbers, outlook, what we're hearing and we will accrue I feel very good about that business. That is very competitive, couple competition with the choppy market that always slows people down. Clients get nervous, markets more volatile. And we're -- we take a long-term view.

So I get this question every quarter and every quarter, I'd say that we're a firm that we had net positive recruiting and we'll continue to do so. And I'm optimistic about who we're talking to. I would say that there's a change over the year it's that we've probably lowered the absolute number of advisers that we talk to while increasing the trailing 12 coming in, meaning we're recruiting higher teams. And I think that's very productive and good. And finally, as I said every quarter, I'm continually amazed at one question, is going to replace all our advisers on the second meeting I have, I talk about the recruiting competition packages are high they've ever been. So -- but overall, it's a positive for us and positive for our growth rate going forward.

Michael Brown

Great. Yes, certainly conflicting messages out in the market. Ron, I guess I wanted to ask about the comp ratio and the pretax margin. So very strong results this quarter. and Jim gave a guide for the year. As we think about the shift in the business mix at Stifel, you've got really strong growth in the venture and the fund finance business. You've repositioned Europe. So should we kind of view this as evidence that this a structurally lower comp ratio at Stifel and a higher margin profile going forward? Obviously, in a normalized environment, can you kind of sustainably operate at this lower comp ratio level?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Well, look, first of all, we're going to pay our people competitively. We're going to provide a step in the place where you can do business, but we can also do well for our bankers and advisers and everyone else. And the comp ratio is a result of, frankly, driving efficiencies and not being inefficient on a number of things. So as we grow our -- as we grow our business and become more productive, 1 of the things that's going to happen in lower your comp ratio. And then finally, as you grow our net income, frankly. That also drives the comp ratio.

It's always at this time of the year that I'd like to point out that we're pretty consistent of not only driving comp ratio lower year enter conservative at the beginning of the year, and we're driving shareholder returns and margin where it often times, you'll see when I work quarter price or comp ratio in the quarter that is going to be much higher because we underaccrued. But next year will be much better. And so this is very consistent, with Stifel, over the years, you'll see competition generally decline and reach their level -- their best levels in the fourth quarter which often -- usually it's our best quarter of the year.

James Marischen

We'll come back next quarter and provide some more granular detail on our 2027 outlook. But given our eyes that we're going to get to the lower end of the range for 2026 and you think about some of the dynamics that play in 2027 we're generating a lot of deposits today. We're having a lot of loan demand. We're going to continue to grow the bank balance sheet. We're going to continue to grow net interest income. And so that going forward is going to be the biggest driver of where the comp ratio could go. But I would say the jumping off point of where we get to for 2026 is a good kind of thought process on how you think about that going forward in 2027.

Operator

We will take our next question from Devin Ryan with Citizens Bank.

Devin Ryan

Wanted to ask a question on low growth and kind of the book broadly. Obviously, you guys are tracking really well relative to the $4 billion objective, and we all see the momentum in fund banking. So I want to dig in just a little bit more on that component. And can you talk a little bit about the growth there. How much is like cyclical, just meaning it's a good environment. There's larger draws and that can maybe bounce around versus structural with everything you're doing to bring in more clients.

And as we think kind of bigger picture, like how big are you comfortable this part of the book getting to as a percentage of the overall loan book? And maybe within the strategic benefits that maybe are outside of the NII that you're seeing from growing some banking?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Fund and Venture Banking together. I feel we're to support the analogy, but we're early innings into growth rate. I talked about some of the things we need to do. Overall, the overall market, especially in funding, I think the markets increased as a lot of money that's being raised and refi them and rent. And so I see that just structurally within the market as a growing within our focus has not only there, but on the metro side, it's to be providing technology that gives us the business to begin. That's why we didn't transaction that I mentioned on this mean technology.

If you want to look at something similar, you'll see where [indiscernible] acquired [indiscernible]. And I think [indiscernible] acquired Capital One. We've taken a different approach in that we want to white label this. But when we looked at our ability to generate significant -- I'm talking about significant posts to drive this business. We needed this technology genic account opening, USD, a stable crypto backed USD cross-border corporate credit cards, payroll, all of the we have what we believe is going to accelerate our ability to get clients. And I've talked about in an investor call, and I can thank what we do in suanhat I was talking about.

And so I'm very optimistic about this business. And it will grow faster at least advantage of certain tasks on the deposit 4 to 5 to 1 deposit. And then we'll deploy some of that more in fund banking or the ratio is almost split long due to a lot of deposits. But it's a business and we track and measure referrals to wealth for the banking mortgages that we're giving to founders, et cetera. So it is a business where we feel we bring all the capabilities of people to this segment of bank.

James Marischen

The investments we've made here and not just in technology but in people, it's helped us take market share across both fund banking and on the vital space. And you think about a direct output of this, we've been talking about generating around $1 billion a quarter of deposit growth with the technology investment in and the capabilities that has to offer we should see that number increase as that goes live, and we have a more competitive treasury product. And I think that is a very scalable deposit generation channel as we look forward.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

And it's across our business, all right? We -- AI, what we're talking about is being able to service clients. In this particular case, we talk about more of a narrow aspect of final venture banking. So when you think about what we're going to do and how we're going to grow this business. We can do that without opening a single branch or putting any sick or more. None of the often the incremental NII on top of what we've already built. We've built the foundation we just are putting some technology on it, and we're going to gain market share.

Devin Ryan

Okay. I appreciate all that background. As a follow-up, I want to dig in a little bit on the investment banking commentary. Sounded, I think, relatively constructive in fourth quarter off to a good start, which is good to hear. Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the specific businesses? And like what for example, you mentioned depositories seeing additional activity.

Like what do you -- what's the catalyst for that? You talk about enthusiasm into 2027. And then obviously, technology has been an area, particularly in software that's been challenged. Are you seeing that stabilize. So to any additional flavor for like what's actually happening beneath the surface that's driving activity across your businesses? And then if you can just hit on some of the sectors that we all know you have strengthened.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Look, I think what happened was we had a very strong board and a lot of engagement, a lot of things that people are talking about. I did not just step us across the street. And not just the people, but across the street, you ran into a quarter where rates, inflation rates, geopolitical, all converged late August into September and slowed activity down significantly, which is to we expect thrown uncertainty in the mix, add a little bit now that we're a few weeks of election that may change some outlook in the short run.

So we've seen a, what I view as a financial condition induce cost, if you will, in activity. But when we look at face-care getting canceled and we're not too things that are getting done because of financial positions, I'm optimistic about the business in specific areas. You've had a slowdown in some of the health care capital markets that we've seen. We expect that to pick up story M&A, I think, is secular trend because of technology, deposit beta, stating the need for scale and the political realities of being able to get something done between now and '28 if there would be a change in administration. That's going to drive activity, and we don't see that change.

So I think this quarter will come a little bit more. It's off to a good start. We see it. It not like a turn the calendar page out of September. But that's how I see it, yes.

Operator

We will take our next question from Steven Chubak with Wolfe Research.

Steven Chubak

Wanted to start just on speed cash. The growth had lagged some of the metrics we've seen at your wirehouse peers just to understand what drove some of the more pronounced declines that we saw in the quarter and your outlook for discrete cash trajectory and just customer behavior in general as we enter a higher rate backdrop with potentially multiple hikes from the Fed?

James Marischen

Right. So I'll touch on sweep cash. One item we didn't touch on this in our prepared remarks, but one thing we'd highlight. With the sale of SINA, we still kept those assets on our platform and service over a period of time. So that cash was still within our ecosystem and our balances of cash. That's probably $0.5 billion that came out of our set balance in terms of activity in the third quarter. So I did highlight that when you're looking at the -- when we closed fully moved those assets off our system.

So the other thing I would say, just generally speaking, we typically see a seasonal uptick in deposits in the fourth quarter. we'd expect that trend to continue. We talked about other things that are going to drive deposit growth in the future. Obviously, Ron already touched on the investment in MA, what we can do there in terms of generating additional deposits in that channel. But overall, we got nearly $3 billion of deposits available to fund future growth. We've got $18 billion sitting in money market funds. We've got $7 billion in short-term treasuries. We can go attack those and bring those. So those are all the cash and cash equivalents within our ecosystem.

Now some of those things on money funds would be a little bit more -- a little bit higher cost, but those are deposits in our ecosystem that we can go get. And so we feel very comfortable overall where we're at from a deposit generation strategy and perspective. I think the other thing I'd say is, as we've seen a remix of our deposits, our NIM has been relatively stable. We've grown NII and at a stable NIM, even though we've seen this kind of reshuffle or remix of deposits. I think that fact is a little underappreciated at times.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Yes. And I would underscore that. I just -- I feel that as there's a lot of focus on a small part of our funding base, we could see, we see tremendous ability to generate deposits and deploy loans and maintain some of the repricing that's going to be going on as the deposit, just everyone knows those as its economics has deposit base reprice so the asset side going to reprice.

And you're seeing it through our stable NIM. And you're going to see that throughout the industry. There's somehow there believe that you reprice cash, the industry is just going to collapse because you can't make any more net interest income. And I find that to be somewhat not consistent with economic theory. But that's for another bank.

Steven Chubak

Understood. And for my follow-up, I did want to ask on the brokerage commentary. So you spoke to the headwinds in the quarter. You were certainly not alone in experiencing that, especially on the muni side. You also indicated that we should see a recovery based on the guidance in transactional fees to $145 million to $150 million. Since equities is seasonally better in 4Q, it does imply continued softness in fixed income I just wanted to better understand how much of it is structural versus cyclical and whether we could see transaction fees get back to that $106 million legacy run rate even after adjusting for some of the business exits.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Look, I think you can. I think we've been trying to say that we have, at least in fixed income, we have transactions that we that are nonrecurring recurring. That's what I'd say. They just don't seem to recur quarterly, okay. But -- so we, last quarter had almost $32 million in restructuring in aircraft. Those departments are up and running, they're doing business, the rate environment, as you can imagine, in any time to restructure to an aircraft, that impacts the we're getting something done during that quarter.

So that leaves fixed income, $95 million to $100 million today at run rate. We're growing that business, the volume business is equities around $50 million. I think equity text for challenging, but I think we can grow. You're seeing a decline to be completely restructured in Europe. But I don't to $160 million. I mean that's blink of an eye. That's nothing, $10 million or $40 million a $6 billion revenue base. And with a lot of I find that to be rounding air.

Operator

We will take our next question from Michael Cho with JPMorgan.

Y. Cho

I just wanted to touch on the valuation slide that you put up and reminded us about. I mean, it feels like feels like a larger deployment of capital toward M&A is off the table for now. I guess, one, is that fair? And then, two, I think repurchases stepped down a touch quarter-to-quarter, I get the volatility stock price, but is there more maybe a more aggressive approach to buybacks that you might consider if the disconnect continues to persist?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Well, I think as it relates to your first question, yes, we're going to be very thoughtful about paying market multiples that are significant multiples of or in terms of EBITDA and capital required to run businesses. So I guess, I would think that, that's shareholders when they want us to look at the acquisition landscape, we want to grow, but we want to grow and be the firm that has higher than 20% ROTC, which isn't common in the bank, certainly come and margins that are robust. We're running this for shareholder value, not just for growth.

As it relates to your second question, I think it's a good one in that when we are looking at acquisitions, there is an attractive one out there, let's call it our own stock. Jim, in terms of how much we're doing, I'll leave that to you.

James Marischen

Right. So the pace of buyback to decline some in the quarter. I think I'd highlight is we did grow loans of $1.3 billion a quarter in addition to buying back $1.6 million shares. So we deployed a fair amount of capital. We brought our capital ratios down. Our excess capital still stands at a strong level of about $360 million. So we have flexibility to grow the loan book as well as buy back our shares, we've got plenty of authorization left on what we currently are authorized to buy back to continue to see us very active in that. You can just look at the share count on a year-to-date basis, to get a sense of how many shares we've taken out, and it's been pretty meaningful to that number.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Yes. But that's the point. We -- it's just looking at numbers, if you use leverage ratio, we could have not grown our loan book and bought back another $200-something million. But what -- but our loan growth, we think, is adding to our franchise and our return on tangible and all of that. That's a good use of capital. Dividends is a good use of capital. the investment we've made in technology, which isn't an acquisition of an investment. That's a great use of capital. But as an absolute acquisition of something I just feel that out and told you we're buying something at 15 to 18x EBITDA, you would not -- The Street wouldn't react low. -- or not, but we're aligned there.

Y. Cho

Fair enough. I appreciate the color. I guess just along the similar conversation around capital priorities, Ron, in the past, you talked about increasing allocation toward recruiting, I guess, in terms of dollars and resources. I mean within this conversation on capital priorities, is that also impact how you're thinking about allocating or adviser recruitment going forward?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Yes. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's a different math and adviser recruiting as it relates to capital and capital ratios are. We look at that more from a return on invested capital. We're hiring people, we're amortizing acquisition costs over 10 years, call it. And sometimes it's easy just to do that because they're kicking a lot of that expense down the growth. And so you coming up and saying, well, based on our recruiting, our comp ratio is going up, well then that might signal that we're either being aggressive in recruiting or maybe we're overpaying a little bit.

So -- but that's hard to see in the short run. We have done this for nearly 30 years and we've built this firm from $100 million in revenue, and we're at $6 billion with a 24% ROTC, and that's because we're capital disciplined. And I'm going to keep signing that. And if that means that we pass something that don't meet our capital returns the shareholders should be -- that should be a premium, not a discount to shareholder valuation in my opinion.

Operator

We will take our next question from Bill Katz with TD Cowen.

William Katz

Just like to stay on the FA recruiting discussion, if we could. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks, you had negative growth in the quarter. I was wondering if you could maybe unpack that a little bit, maybe by channel, what you might be seeing, I think, Ron, you mentioned that competition is still pretty elevated. And underneath that, one of the things we're hearing is that these PE platforms are leveraging AI to really reduce the back office costs and then drive up the recruitment and TA packages. Where are you in terms of potentially including such technology in your own footprint which maybe allow you to be more competitive on pricing if needed.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Well, I think we are utilizing AI more productivity. I've got something on back office, I mean, using AI tools to settle trades or something like that. I haven't seen that, but none of self-clearing, so that's not possible anyway. So -- but in terms of tools and being able to help advisers maybe have less assistance, I guess, that's possible. We're not taking that approach. We're using AI as a tool to help us and it's a powerful tool for prepare meeting prep, meeting follow-up analysis discussion. There's a whole bunch of things, but we're combining that with humans and I actually see the need for more people, not less.

So I don't know. I don't -- just not sure if I'm in a recruiting pitch and I say, "Hey, look, I can add a little bit more of your recruiting, but you can't have an assistant because you got to use a say I buy. I think I'm going to go down in my recruiting ability. I just do. But that's just, again, the private equity firms are dealing more in the independent and RIA space. So I don't really know. But clearly a productivity enhancer. We're making significant investments. We're resetting a lot of our tools. We're putting new tools in place. And I think it's a tailwind to what we're doing. I'm not going -- we're not going to reduce people and recruit up recruiting, but we're not doing that. Not now, we're -- it's not.

James Marischen

Everything within our wealth business is also in the employee channel. I would say of SAA, but we're no longer in the independent space at all.

William Katz

Okay. That makes sense. And just maybe coming back to your guidance. So it seems like you're going to be south of the $6 billion number for the full year. on your top line net revenue number and you guided to NII bouncing rising a little bit more. and that you have a little bit of a recovery on the transaction side due to lack of mark-to-market and you talk to the better investment banking backlog. So can you talk a little bit about where the residual weakness might be relative to expectation at this point in time? And then how long is the lead lag between the pipeline and actually revenue recognition through the advisory line?

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Yes. Well, look, let's -- what I said we're going to -- we expect to have -- we had a record, record quarter -- fourth quarter, but that's -- we expect that to be in that range. This is still not a hugely robust environment. That can change. Let's have the elections go and what happens after that. There are going to be a lot of repositioning of things that will happen post the election.

So look, as it relates to the guide, there are a couple of things we did a lot -- some of its accounting. For instance, we were conservative on the sale of SIA. We reported a $5 million gain on that, and we call it, we put it not poor because we have thought that, that probably shouldn't be important we were doing at the beginning of the year. That was in our thought process of revenue, same with our restructuring of Europe that we were doing of run rate revenues. Both of those items increased our margins, increased our return on tangible equity, but probably took out of our run rate $70 million, $75 million revenue. So if you add that in, you're back close to $6 billion of our rates.

Now why were we above that range. I would point, I think we thought the fixed income would have a better year. The rate environment, everything that's happened, some of the marks we took new to those returns, but I'm optimistic about that business, too. So I feel we're at the low end of the range of what we said in January and [indiscernible]. If you look at our GAAP numbers, our GAAP numbers, they just we reported -- we have put some of those revenues in GAAP, and we took them out of non-GAAP.

Operator

We will take our next question from Brennan Hawken with BMO Capital Markets.

Brennan Hawken

Ron, just start with a follow-up. I believe when you're answering Steve's question on trading. You mentioned $50 million for revenues in the in equities in the fourth quarter. Normally, we see a seasonal pickup. So was the seasonality that you historically have seen tied to Europe? Or is just the core operating environment softer. And so therefore, the seasonality is just not going to provide the same sort of uplift that we would normally see versus typical run rate.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

When I say -- I don't think this is good, and I'll let Jim go ahead and I don't see any disease in to be good. But when we say $145 to $150 that's kind of our run rate absent these marks in the inventory absent the one what you -- we try to tell you isn't always recurring. So that's not necessarily the fourth quarter. That's just trying to say, look, we've got a little bit of noise here, and this is what we see settling out.

The fourth quarter generally is seasonally better. We'll see that seasonality often depend on the election. We also get -- we get checks for our -- the old MiFID type thing where we get research checks that always helps, too. So that wasn't meant to be just a fourth quarter look. That's just trying to reset the orals expectations of what sort of normal, if there is such a run rate in institutional transactional revenue.

James Marischen

First of all, I agree with what Ron said. And I'd add to that, the European restructuring has an impact on this on what is a normalized run rate. That probably took out $5 million or $6 million a year-over-year comparison when we look at the fourth quarter. And so that's going to have an impact on an absolute number on what we did with those restructuring activities. So you have to take that in consideration when you're looking at these numbers year-over-year.

Brennan Hawken

Okay. I mean the transcript does say that you'd expect fourth quarter, rev, but okay, fine. Got it. follow-up question on the Slide 2-point and some of the discussion around net new. So One thing I'd point out is that both of those comps do disclose net new assets. So that might be something to consider. Maybe you said that net new was helpful. Was that quarter-over-quarter year-over-year? And if it was year-over-year, was it positive quarter-over-quarter.

And then for maybe a sub part of the consideration, one part that could result in the delta in the metrics could be scale. So would you consider looking to partner to be part of a larger, more powerful sales organization, potentially, which might allow for that realization and valuation to be capped or bridged.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Did you ask me -- did you just asked me if I would sell?

Brennan Hawken

That is a very indirect way of doing it, yes.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

Well, I'll just give you a very direct clarification, okay? So that's -- hey, I don't mind. Look, that's a fair question. That is just a long way of asking it. But that's a very fair question. Look, where, okay, so you wherever it is, we were going to -- with those 2, I don't want to say because I'm not doing anything, but most financial institutions, we're going to sail into someone that has a lower growth rate and a lower return on tangible equity. -- and because of scale sense. I mean if I'm going to scale then I'm going to scale into someone get higher margins, higher return, higher growth rate.

So I understand a quarter can stand on its own, but we've put on that slide since 2016. So those check those numbers. So who's grown past. So I hear you now your question is, do we get a higher multiple, even though we combine with someone with lower financial metrics. The answer is no, but I can take the question. That's fair. I don't mean to suggest it's a topic question.

Brennan Hawken

Okay. Thanks for tolerating me.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

No, no, that's alright. I would come on your and ask the same question. That will be fun. But no, that's fair, but what is most -- and I'm just taking a moment here because most institutions that try to combine for scale in a people business and in a culture business, a business that's long and established a tafa with our growth rate, not like we're not growing. We'll find out that those lead to just economies of scale. Nonaccounting scale. So I'll leave you with that thought.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back to Mr. Kruszewski for any additional or closing remarks.

Ronald J. Kruszewski

No, that -- well, I mean, the -- we appreciate everyone. I really often I want to complement all of our analysts, I like got provoking questions on my question that I want people to be comfortable asking. I would you also be comfortable in my answers. If you ask the questions, but I really do appreciate the fact that our analyst community takes the time to think about things that are outside the box. And to our shareholders, what I would say is that our business model is people really can put almost in its 3 buckets.

First and foremost, we want to serve our clients but all our resources to providing the best product services and advice that we can on the table. The benefit of serving our clients well falls under 2 buckets. One that our associates and partners can do well. And second is that our shareholder is not second but equally our shareholders do well. And that's how we manage the place. So we do not manage it to maximize of employees at the expense of shareholders. And frankly, we're not going to maximize shareholders at the expense of employees. Both of those are not good long-term ways to run a unit capital financial services firm. But with that, I look forward to reporting in the fourth quarter, and thank you for your time.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.