Piper Jaffray Cos. (PJC) said early Wednesday that it had net income of $9.4 million, or $0.49 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2010 vs. net income of $12.3 million or $0.63 cents a share in the same period of 2009.
The company says its recent results were reduced by $0.48 per share due to a $9.1 million after-tax charge related to the restructuring of the firm's European operations.
Fourth-quarter revenues were $176.4 million vs. $132.9 million in the year-ago period and $116.5 million for the third quarter of 2010.
Analysts had expected the investment bank to earn $0.48 cents a share on sales of $132.3 million.
Piper Jaffray's shares were trading up 13.5% on very high volume near $41 in early afternoon trading Wednesday.
For the year ended Dec. 31, 2010, net income was $24.4 million, or $1.23 per share, compared with net income of $30.4 million, or $1.55 per share, in 2009.
Net revenues were $530.1 million for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2010, up 13 percent compared to last year, the highest since Piper Jaffray (formerly owned by US Bancorp) became a public company in 2003.
"We are very pleased with our strong fourth-quarter results, reflecting solid performance in all of our businesses," said CEO and Chairman Andrew S. Duff in a press release. "In 2010, we took actions to improve our profitability and return on equity for the longer term."
For 2010, the company says its asset-management activities comprised 13% of total net revenues and 28% of operating income, up from 3% and a loss in 2009, respectively.
The firm has two reportable business segments: Capital Markets and Asset Management. Consolidated net revenues and expenses are fully allocated to these two segments.
It sold its private-client business for about $500 million in 2006 to UBS, which picked up 700 financial advisors through the deal.
Piper Jaffray's capital-markets group generated pre-tax operating income of $16.0 million, which was reduced by $9.4 million (pre-tax) of restructuring charges, compared to $18.7 million in the
