CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We raise our target price by $15 to $125 on a forward P/E of 13.0x our FY 2024 (Sep.) EPS estimate, a slight discount to RJF’s 10-year average (13.8x) as net interest income (NII) headwinds partially offset our expected investment banking (IB) recovery. We raise our FY 2024 EPS by $0.05 to $9.61 and FY 2025’s by $0.16 to $10.14. RJF reported FQ2 adjusted EPS of $2.31 vs. $2.03, in line with consensus. Revenues rose 9% Y/Y, driven by Asset Management (+17% Y/Y), Capital Markets (CM, +14% Y/Y), and Private Client Group (PCG, +9% Y/Y), partially offset by RJ Bank (RJB, -22% Y/Y). PCG benefited from equity market tailwinds with AUM rising to $1.39T vs. $1.17T Y/Y. CM results were a bit weaker than we expected, as brokerage revenues dropped 6% Y/Y, while IB results rose 18% Y/Y, but were up just 1% Q/Q. We expect IB results to improve moving forward. RJB headwinds were driven by a 22% drop in NII, as net interest margins (NIMs) contracted 70 bps Y/Y to 2.66%. We expect NII to pull back 12%-14% in FY 2024.