Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Chad Abraham - Chairman and CEO
Deb Schoneman - President
Kate Clune - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Devin Ryan - JMP Securities
Brendan O'Brien - Wolfe Research
James Yaro - Goldman Sachs
Michael Grondahl - Northland Securities

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Piper Sandler Companies Conference Call to Discuss the Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2024. During the question-and-answer session, securities industry professionals may ask questions of management.

The company will make forward-looking statements on this call that are not historical or current facts, including statements about beliefs and expectations, and involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated are identified in the Company's earnings release and reports on file with the SEC, which are available on the Company's website at www.pipersandler.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.

This call will also include statements regarding certain non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to the Company's earnings release issued today for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. The earnings release is available on the Investor Relations page of the Company's website and at the SEC website. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Chad Abraham. Mr. Abraham, you may begin your call.

Chad Abraham

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. It's great to be with you to talk about our first quarter 2024 results. I am here with Deb Schoneman, our President; and Kate Clune, our CFO. During the first quarter, we generated adjusted net revenues of $334 million, a 16.8% operating margin and adjusted EPS of $2.79. While market headwinds persist, we're encouraged by the improvement in certain businesses, most notably equity capital markets. Our diversified platform continues to perform well through varied cycles.

Corporate investment banking generated revenues of $210 million during the first quarter, a 25% increase over the same period last year, driven by higher revenues from both advisory and corporate financing. We benefited from the sector and product diversification of our business along with increased revenues from private equity clients.

Advisory services revenues were $157 million during the quarter and increased year-over-year driven by higher average fees. The trend of advising on larger transactions and generating larger fees continues to be a key driver of our results. We completed 57 advisory transactions during the first quarter. Performance was led by the best quarter on record from our energy and power team with solid contributions from our financial services, consumer and healthcare groups.