Tuesday, Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR) announced profit for the fourth quarter compared to a loss last year. The results reflects higher revenue from all of its businesses and higher margins. Both adjusted proforma earnings and revenue estimate came ahead of expectations.
New York-based Evercore's fourth quarter net income attributable to Evercore partners was $1.65 million or $0.07 per share compared to a net loss attributable to Evercore of $5.34 million or $0.39 per share in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted Pro Forma net income was $16.54 million or $0.41 per share compared to a loss of $8.5 million or $0.25 per share in the year-ago period.
On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.38 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Net revenue for the fourth quarter increased to $109.2 million from $33.2 million in the comparable quarter last year. Adjusted Pro Forma net revenues was $109.1 million, up from $34.4 million in the prior year quarter.
Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $101.36 million for the fourth quarter.
Advisory business revenue in the quarter grew, with continued strength from both M&A advisory and restructuring assignments, to $100.8 million. The Investment Management business reported substantially improved revenues from the same period last year, to $9.3 million as the businesses launched in late 2008 and early 2009 have both increased assets under management and fee-based revenues.
Opearting margins for the quarter was 17% and adjusted Pro Forma operating margins increased to 28% in the recent quarter.
Total expenses for the quarter were $90.2 million compared to $49.7 million last year, mainly due to the addition of new businesses and a further compensation charge associated with the restructuring of the Private Equity business. Interest expense declined to $5 million from $8.2 million in the year-ago period.
For the full year, the company's net loss narrowed to $1.57 million or $0.10 per share from $4.7 million or $0.36 per share in the prior year. Adjusted Pro Forma net income surged to $32.8 million or $ 0.89 per share from $4.0 million or $0.12 per share last year.
Revenue for the full year, increased sharply to $313.1 million from $194.6 million a year ago. On pro forma basis, revenue was $314.4 million, up from $193.3 million in the prior year period.
Analysts estimated earnings of $0.84 per share on revenue of $305.35 million for the fiscal 2009.
Evercore's board on January 28 declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share to be paid on March 12, to common stockholders of record on February 26.
EVR is currently trading at $29.54, down $0.67 or 2.22% on a volume of 0.14 million shares on the NYSE.
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