KBW Posts 3rd-quarter Profit On Higher Revenue

NEW YORK (AP) — Investment bank KBW Inc. said Thursday that higher revenue and improving market conditions drove it to a profit in the third quarter, reversing its year-ago loss and beating analyst expectations.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the company earned $11.9 million, or 33 cents per share. That compared with a loss of $23 million, or 75 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time charges, the company earned $13.4 million, or 37 cents per share.

Quarterly revenue was $122.6 million, up from $53.6 million last year.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 26 cents per share on revenue of $101.1 million. Analysts do not include one-time charges in estimates.

Investment banking revenue was $57.8 million for the quarter, up 26 percent from $46 million last year, primarily due to a record number of equity capital markets transactions.

CEO John G. Duffy said in a release the record transactions was the result of financial companies recapitalizing, in many cases to take advantage of potential future consolidation opportunities.