Want to see SF full AI Analyst Report?
Top Page
Stifel Financial
(NYSE:SF)
Select Model
Select Model
Rating:69Neutral
Price Target:
$73.00
â–¼(-9.62% Downside)
Action:Downgraded
Date:10/21/26
The score is driven primarily by solid financial performance with improving TTM profitability and ROE, but meaningfully offset by weak and volatile TTM cash flow. Valuation is a clear positive (low P/E and a ~2% yield). Technicals are the main near-term risk as the stock is in a pronounced downtrend despite oversold readings, while the latest earnings call was constructive with supportive guidance and capital deployment, tempered by market/transactional revenue sensitivity.
Positive Factors
Wealth Management Scale
Growing client and fee-based assets expand the base supporting recurring advisory and asset-management revenue. This wealth-management scale can make earnings more resilient than transaction-led income, while recruiting and net new assets provide avenues for continued asset growth.
Negative Factors
Volatile Cash Conversion
The sharp decline in operating and free cash flow makes recent earnings less consistently convertible into cash. Persistent cash-flow volatility could constrain capital allocation, reduce flexibility during weaker markets, and make performance more dependent on fluctuations in financial-services activity.
Read all positive and negative factors
Positive Factors
Negative Factors
Wealth Management Scale
Growing client and fee-based assets expand the base supporting recurring advisory and asset-management revenue. This wealth-management scale can make earnings more resilient than transaction-led income, while recruiting and net new assets provide avenues for continued asset growth.
Read all positive factors
Stifel Financial (SF) vs. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
Market Cap
$10.09B
Dividend Yield2%
Average Volume (3M)1.36M
Price to Earnings (P/E)8.0
Beta (1Y)1.29
Revenue Growth8.19%
EPS Growth51.30%
CountryUS
Employees8,900
SectorFinancial
Sector Strength70
IndustryFinancial - Capital Markets
Share Statistics
EPS (TTM)8.30
Shares Outstanding151,001,740
10 Day Avg. Volume1,144,539
30 Day Avg. Volume1,359,547
Financial Highlights & Ratios
PEG Ratio-2.22
Price to Book (P/B)1.44
Price to Sales (P/S)1.36
P/FCF Ratio7.14
Enterprise Value/Market Cap1.27
Enterprise Value/Revenue1.92
Enterprise Value/Gross Profit2.21
Enterprise Value/Ebitda7.30
Forecast
1Y Price Target
$79.00Price Target Upside-2.19% Downside
Rating ConsensusHold
Number of Analyst Covering4
EPS Forecast (FY)6.32
Revenue Forecast (FY)$5.98B
Stifel Financial Business Overview & Revenue Model
Company Description
Stifel Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated that provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual, corporations, municipalities, and ins...
How the Company Makes Money
Stifel makes money primarily by delivering brokerage, advisory, and investment banking services and earning revenue tied to client assets, transaction activity, and capital markets execution.
Key revenue streams include:
1) Wealth Management (cli...
Stifel Financial Earnings Call Summary
Earnings Call Date:Oct 21, 2026
(Q3-2026)
| % Change Since: |
Next Earnings Date:Jan 27, 2027
Earnings Call Sentiment Positive
The call was broadly optimistic. Stifel reported record year-to-date and third-quarter EPS, strong wealth-management performance, higher net interest income, improved operating leverage, solid capital levels, and constructive investment-banking and recruiting pipelines. These strengths were partly offset by September market volatility, lower Institutional and transactional revenue, slightly negative wealth-management net flows, elevated adviser recruiting competition, and full-year revenue tracking toward the low end of the stated range.Positive Updates
Record Year-to-Date Performance
Year-to-date revenue was $4.3 billion, up 9%, and earnings per share was $4.33, up 57%. Excluding the impact of last year's legal charge, EPS was up 22%, with return on tangible common equity of 24.1%. Revenue and pretax margins in both operating segments were up year-to-date, and efficiency initiatives continued to generate strong returns.
Negative Updates
Choppier Market Conditions in September
The third quarter began with healthy client activity, but conditions became choppier in September as geopolitical tensions, rising energy prices, and renewed inflation concerns led to the Federal Reserve's first rate increase in three years. Management said the speed of the rate move unsettled markets.
Read all updates
Q3-2026 Updates
Positive
Negative
Record Year-to-Date Performance
Year-to-date revenue was $4.3 billion, up 9%, and earnings per share was $4.33, up 57%. Excluding the impact of last year's legal charge, EPS was up 22%, with return on tangible common equity of 24.1%. Revenue and pretax margins in both operating segments were up year-to-date, and efficiency initiatives continued to generate strong returns.
Read all positive updates
Company Guidance
Guidance included fourth quarter net interest income in a range of $295 million to $305 million, full-year loan growth of $4 billion, fourth quarter institutional transactional revenue in a range of $145 million to $150 million absent another rate move like September, an operating non-compensation ratio within full-year guidance of 18% to 20%, and a fourth quarter effective tax rate in the range of 19% to 22% assuming a stable stock price; the comp ratio is projected to be at the low end of full-year comp guidance, fourth quarter fully diluted share count is expected to be approximately 158.8 million shares, and the company expects to match last year's fourth-quarter record of $1.56 billion in revenue this year, with earnings per share expected to be higher.Stifel Financial Financial Statement Overview
Summary
Income Statement
78
Positive
Balance Sheet
74
Positive
Cash Flow
55
Neutral
| Breakdown | TTM | Dec 2025 | Dec 2024 | Dec 2023 | Dec 2022 | Dec 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Income Statement | ||||||
| Total Revenue | 6.68B | 6.30B | 5.89B | 5.10B | 4.54B | 4.72B |
| Gross Profit | 5.78B | 5.45B | 4.88B | 4.27B | 4.30B | 4.69B |
| EBITDA | 1.75B | 966.29M | 1.01B | 788.15M | 955.33M | 1.13B |
| Net Income | 953.63M | 683.78M | 731.38M | 522.54M | 662.15M | 824.86M |
Balance Sheet | ||||||
| Total Assets | 44.91B | 41.59B | 39.90B | 37.73B | 37.20B | 34.05B |
| Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments | 3.72B | 2.28B | 3.00B | 3.68B | 3.84B | 4.08B |
| Total Debt | 839.60M | 2.18B | 2.77B | 2.92B | 1.84B | 2.32B |
| Total Liabilities | 38.90B | 35.61B | 34.21B | 32.43B | 31.87B | 29.01B |
| Stockholders Equity | 6.01B | 5.98B | 5.69B | 5.29B | 5.33B | 5.03B |
Cash Flow | ||||||
| Free Cash Flow | 417.67M | 1.20B | 416.65M | 447.35M | 1.08B | 683.92M |
| Operating Cash Flow | 448.35M | 1.26B | 490.44M | 499.33M | 1.16B | 872.09M |
| Investing Cash Flow | -3.87B | -1.76B | -2.31B | 1.04B | -4.32B | -6.97B |
| Financing Cash Flow | 3.72B | 91.25M | 980.10M | -254.58M | 3.19B | 5.79B |
Stifel Financial Technical Analysis
Negative
80.77
Price Trends
75.55
Negative
75.63
Negative
76.36
Negative
Market Momentum
-2.35
Positive
27.55
Positive
13.29
Positive
Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For SF, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 80.77 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 69.25, above the 50-day MA of 75.55, and above the 200-day MA of 76.36, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -2.35 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 27.55 is Positive, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 13.29 is Positive, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for SF.
Stifel Financial Risk Analysis
Stifel Financial disclosed 27 risk factors in its most recent earnings report. Stifel Financial reported the most risks in the "Finance & Corporate" category.
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
Latest Risks Added 0 New Risks
Stifel Financial Peers Comparison
UnderperformOutperform
Sector (68)
Name | Overall Rating | Market Cap | P/E Ratio | ROE | Dividend Yield | Revenue Growth | EPS Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
72 Outperform | $37.56B | 32.44 | 20.41% | 0.39% | 16.12% | 25.72% | |
72 Outperform | $3.50B | 15.18 | 71.16% | 0.73% | 22.91% | 21.48% | |
71 Outperform | $9.11B | 21.08 | 17.78% | 2.03% | 1.59% | -1.40% | |
69 Neutral | $10.09B | 8.00 | 16.07% | 2.00% | 8.19% | 51.30% | |
68 Neutral | $18.00B | 11.42 | 9.92% | 3.81% | 9.73% | 1.22% | |
67 Neutral | $4.55B | 14.15 | 22.90% | 3.11% | 32.10% | 40.51% | |
64 Neutral | $97.87B | 16.03 | 14.76% | 1.56% | -1.15% | 30.83% |
* Financial Sector Average
SF
Stifel Financial
66.41
-9.97
-13.05%
BNY
Bank of New York Mellon
145.85
41.00
39.10%
IBKR
Interactive Brokers
85.33
18.44
27.57%
PIPR
Piper Sandler
64.40
-18.27
-22.10%
HLI
Houlihan Lokey
128.39
-65.11
-33.65%
PJT
PJT Partners
136.34
-41.11
-23.17%
Stifel Financial Corporate Events
Business Operations and StrategyFinancial Disclosures
Stifel Highlights Record Client Assets, Wealth Management Growth
Positive
Sep 24, 2026
On September 24, 2026, Stifel reported selected operating data as of August 31, 2026, highlighting record total client assets of $587.6 billion and fee-based client assets of $244.4 billion, up 10% and 14% year over year respectively. Excluding th...
Business Operations and StrategyFinancial Disclosures
Stifel Financial Reports Record Client and Treasury Assets
Positive
Aug 27, 2026
On August 27, 2026, Stifel Financial reported selected operating data as of July 31, 2026, highlighting record fee‑based client assets of $240 billion and total client assets of $578 billion, up 17% and 13% year‑over‑year after e...
Glossary
BuyA stock rated as a "Buy" is expected to perform better than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock is likely to deliver higher returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
HoldA stock rated as a "Hold" is expected to perform in line with the overall market or a specific benchmark. This rating indicates that the stock is neither particularly compelling nor unfavorable for investment. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
SellA stock rated as a "Sell" is expected to perform worse than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock may deliver lower returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Disclaimer
This AI Analyst Stock Report is automatically generated by our AI systems using advanced algorithms and publicly available financial, technical, and market data. While the information provided aims to be accurate and insightful, it is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Any content created by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system may contain inaccuracies and/or contain errors. Investing in stocks carries inherent risks, and past performance is not indicative of future results. This report does not account for your personal financial circumstances, objectives, or risk tolerance. Always conduct your own research or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. The analysis and recommendations provided are based on historical and current data and may not fully reflect future market conditions or unexpected developments. Neither the creators of this report nor its affiliated entities guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Use this report at your own discretion and risk.