Stifel Shares Jump After 2Q Results Top Street

NEW YORK (AP) — Stifel Financial Corp. shares rallied Tuesday after the brokerage and investment adviser posted second-quarter profit well-ahead of Wall Street's expectations.

Late Monday, the company posted net income of $15.8 million, or 51 cents per diluted share, on revenue of $261.5 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 46 cents per share, on revenue of $224.9 million.

In afternoon trading, Stifel shares jumped $4.36, or 8.5 percent, to $55.63, with trading volume well ahead of normal.

The results prompted several analysts to raise their price targets on the stock. Among them was Steve Stelmach of FBR Capital Markets, who kept an "Outperform" rating and raised his target to $60 from $55.

"Stifel remains one of the few growth stories in our coverage universe," he wrote in a note to clients. "Should market conditions remain lackluster or demonstrate some level of improvement in 2010, we expect fundamentals at Stifel to continue to outperform peers." Among the positive developments for Stifel are an expansion of its financial advisers, up 384 in the past year to 1,562. It will add an additional 350 or so when it closes its purchase of UBS's Wealth Management during the current quarter.