SF

Stifel Financial is a diversified broker-dealer and wealth manager, and FY2025 showed the franchise gaining ground: revenue grew 14.5% to $3.77B, recovering well past the 2022-23 trough ($2.71B in FY2023). Net income dipped 6.5% to $684M and diluted EPS fell 6.1% to $5.87, but the operating profile remains strong — a 24.6% operating margin, 18.1% net margin and 11.4% ROE on a capital-markets-sensitive business. Operating cash flow more than doubled (+127.8%) to $1.12B, a healthy sign of underlying activity.

The valuation is the draw. At $73.54 the stock trades at just 12.5x earnings and 1.4x revenue — modest for a wealth-management-led business with recurring advisory fees and net-interest income. Capital return is meaningful: buybacks rose 70.0% to $245M while the share count held flat at 71.9M, so repurchases are offsetting comp-related dilution and supporting per-share value. The balance sheet's 5.90x liabilities-to-equity looks high in isolation but is normal for a broker-dealer balance sheet dominated by client-related assets; long-term debt is modest at $617M.