Lehman Earnings Are Up 41%
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Lehman Brothers Holdings, whose profit growth outstripped its bigger Wall Street competitors this year, said fourth quarter earnings rose 41% on gains in fixed-income trading and stock sales.
Net income in the three months ended November 30 climbed to $823 million, or $2.76 a share, from $585 million, or $1.96, a year earlier, Lehman said yesterday in a statement. Revenue for the fourth-biggest American securities firm by market value rose 28% to $3.7 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld’s expansion of equities, mergers advice, and asset management helped Lehman post a second straight year of record earnings. The New York-based firm posted record fees from advising on acquisitions and the strongest revenue in almost six years in equity capital markets, which includes stock trading.
“There is nothing wrong that you can criticize and say it’s a bad quarter,” said Anton Schutz, who helps manage $275 million at Mendon Capital Advisors in Rochester, N.Y.
Wall Street’s top firms are having their best year ever.
Goldman Sachs Group will probably say December 15 that fourth-quarter profit rose 38% to $1.6 billion, according to analyst surveys by Thomson Financial.
