Stifel Financial Corp. SF, +2.34% and Evercore Inc. EVR, +6.00% both reported double-digit percentage drops in compensation expense on Wednesday as banker pay dries up from 2022’s lower deal flow. Third-quarter compensation expense at Stifel fell 25% to $211.82 million from $283.1 million in the year-ago quarter, as total revenue fell to $339.4 million from $492.3 million, drops in investment banking, advisory and equity capital raising fees. Stifel’s third-quarter earnings of $1.29 a share fell short of the Wall Street target of $1.45 a share while revenue of $1.05 billion missed the $1.08 billion estimate, according to FactSet data. Evercore’s third-quarter earnings of $2.20 a share beat the analyst estimate of $1.37 a share, while its revenue of $581.1 million beat the Wall Street target of $482.4 million. Evercore’s employee compensation and benefit expense dropped 27% to $355.8 million and reflects lower accrual for incentive compensation related to weaker revenue, partially offset by higher base salaries, the company said. Shares of Evercore are up 2.7% in morning trades while Stifel is down by 2.3%. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.65% is lower by 0.6%.
