Where tf does Stifel Rank?
Stifel seems to get absolutely violated on here. Some say its at the bottom of the relatively well known banks and some say its pretty solid. There have been a few posts on this, but not much detail recently. All I want to know is if their reputation is improving / deal quality is increasing.
I know people say its below RJ / Truist etc., but how much further below? Is there like a layer of dirt and then shit between Stifel and those shops, or is it only slightly below? Is the gap narrowing? Is it increasing?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Regards,
Stifel is probably on par or slightly below Truist depending on strong vs. weak groups. I did see they have decent benefits and meal stipends tho
i personally group them with KeyBanc / Truist / Cowen on average and have them above the tier of international banks like Mizuho / HSBC / Nomura, etc.
Just my opinion…none of the above banks are active in my industry and I know Cowen has strong pharma / biotech / science-y groups
Okay okay I can work with that. In terms of PE, what do you think the prospects are? For me, it doesn’t need to be all that reputable at first. Just want to know if I can climb to UMM
Probably going to have to exit to LMM PE
really varies by group. KBW (together with Sandler) basically own MM FIG. Tech is ok. Other groups not so much.
okay but Keybanc is mostly in Cleveland, and literally any city that has an IB office for any bank is better than Cleveland.
I know that Stifels FIG (aka KBW), Miller Buckfire, and Tech had great performances for 2021. Stifel's performance can also be judged differently based on groups IMO. I can't speak for the other groups though.
Definitely below BGL
KBW (FIG) bodies the middle market depository game – absolutely disgusting
Would rank them with Stephens near the bottom of respectable middle-market firms
Current Stifel 2nd year analyst. My group typically competes against HW, Houlihan, Piper, Cowen, and Lincoln, if that indicates anything. Mean sellside deal value I've closed personally is ~$250 mm fwiw. Culture is group dependent but I think mine is generally much better than I was expecting going into banking. Working on average 75 hours, rarely above 90 (usually done with work before midnight, I'd say).
Comp is roughly street? Believe it's around $150k all in (base plus bonus) but I started early and got screwed as a result of a weird prorating system (they pay bonuses in August, not end of year). Can't speak much to exits, probably nothing the kids on these forums would get excited by but all the traditional exits will be available to you. It's very quickly rising in the league tables (top 15 or 20 US sellside advisor by deal value last year) which I think means the deal quality and value is growing faster than its reputation as it was not nearly as good three to five years ago. Definitely think it's above a Stephens, Truist, Keybanc but I'm obviously biased.
How does it compare to Oppenheimer?
Weaker than every other bank listed in this thread.
They're very good in HC, but not well-rounded like others.
Well probably depends on your group. Top 15 or 20 sellside advisor by deal value I can imagine was largely driven by Tech and KBW, no?
Curious what group you're in. At one of the banks you mentioned, I've only heard us pitch against Stifel once, and that was in tech.
Quick followup on this. I've had several recruiters at the major headhunter firms reach out and although I'm not sure that will translate into stronger exit opps (i.e. MF / UMM) it is indicative of how far Stifel has come in the past few years. I'm not interested in buyout PE anyway so it never really mattered to me.
Stifel’s PubFin group had a great 2021 too, moved from 11th to 7th in municipal underwriting rankings.
It’s tough to sort through the middle market, which is very group dependent. However, as someone at one of the firms mentioned in this thread,
Top MM: Blair, HL, HW, Baird
Good MM: RJ, Piper, Lincoln
Reputable MM: Stifel, Cowen, Canaccord
Step below Stifel: Stephens, Opp, etc.
Solid but different category due to balance sheet / focus areas: Truist, Key, BMO, etc.
I might be missing some. The thing with Stifel is it’s somewhat disjointed and does some nice deals, but also a $50M deal or some odd SPAC or PIPE stuff. I imagine the analyst experience is quite varied as the firm kinda just does whatever they can, whereas other firms are going to be more strategic, higher minimum fees, etc.
Doesn't cowen pay pretty good? had a lateral join my bank (top BB) and said he was getting paid more at cowen lol
Heavily group dependent. If he was in the Biotech group, then they crushed it the past two years.
would add lazard mm to the good tier
Shouldn't JEF be in there?
Jeff is unique and above all of these
Absolutely not, Jeff is a tier above normal MMs (like RBC or WF) and actually closer to the BBs. They are amazingly high on the league tables and have increased market share in their top groups.
For example, I think jefferies HC is like #5 on the league tables? Beating out Citi, CS, Barclays, etc. And they’ve moved up from high single digits a few years ago.
Listening to everyone trying to tier out these middle market banks is ridiculous. They are all so similar, yet people act like there’s bounds and leaps between each bank / “tier”. Yes it’s important to be on quality deals, but if you’re going to be at a decent MM shop, then your focus should be much more on fit/culture than if it’s perceived as more prestigious than RJ or whatever.
It is and it isn't. There's definitely truth behind it. I'm at one of the "top MM" banks and in every competitive pitch, we see at least 1/2 of the other "top mm" banks. In a lot of pitches we will see 1/2 of the "tier 2" mm banks, and occasionally (~10-20% of pitches) we'll see a cowen or stifel. The higher Tier mm banks more consistently take cleaner assets to market that usually fetch higher multiples, resulting in more revenue per banker (which doesn't matter much as an analyst, way more the higher up you go), and when it comes to buy-side recruiting there probably is some similar stratification in exit quality.
This is all to say that by traditional WSO metrics, you will be better off as an analyst at blair than at stifel, on average. But after working in this job for ~8 months, I'm actually looking to make a lateral move to a "Stifel Tier" mm bank for personal/geography reasons, and do not feel in any way that my career will be hampered, and I will actually be a happier person because of it.
Well said! To put words in your mouth, are you realizing that you want to stay in IB longer term so now looking for a more “sustainable” (better culture or even WLB) bank to do so?
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