We spend plenty of time blabbing about the big boys of banking -- you know, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). Citigroup (NYSE: C). Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). But there's a whole separate world of smaller, niche investment banks that rarely get mentioned.
Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) is one of them, and it's putting up some impressive numbers these days. Net income for the third quarter came in at $86 million, or $0.42 per share, on record revenue of $700 million. That compares with a loss of $0.18 per share in the same period last year.
In what looks like a fairly common rundown of revenue sources, trading segments stole the show:
Segment
Q3 2009 Revenue
Q3 2008 Revenue
Commissions
$94 million
$113 million
Principal Transactions
$372 million
($3 million)
Investment Banking
$123 million
$130 million
Asset Management
$21 million
Net Interest Income
$84 million
$31 million
Digging a little deeper into Jeffries' trading-based revenue:
Equities
$149 million
Fixed Income and Commodities
$313 million
High Yield Continued...
Morgan Housel is a Motley Fool contributor.
Be the first to read Morgan Housel's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.