I know these threads are annoying, but there's not much info out there comparing these MM / LMM firms. This post isn't about prestige, more so information about the analyst experience (M&A), exit opportunities, strongest groups, etc. Has anyone chosen between these firms?
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Lincoln and Raymond James have both been doing well the last few years. Strong culture, pay street and solid analyst experiences at these shops.
Lincoln’s strongest group is industrials out of Chicago, but the TMT teams in NY/SF have seen good dealflow as well. They recently closed an $800M software deal which is strong for them. RayJ will give you with a wider analyst experience since they are not purely M&A like Lincoln is.
Less familiar with STRH and Stifel, so will defer to others on their thoughts.
In terms of exits ops, is it better to have exposure to financing deals or focus on M&A?
It depends on what your career interests are, but if you’re eventually looking to do PE/buyout Lincoln probably has the strongest relationships for MM/LMM PE.
As with all of these types of questions, it is entirely group dependent. For tech group, would rank RJ first, followed by Lincoln, Stifel, and SunTrust. RJ's tech group (Boston, ATL, SF) is by far it's strongest, and tends to work on larger deals than the rest of the bank, and typically competes against Blair, HW, Jefferies, and FT Partners on mandates. Strong PE placement as well. Also depends on location, with Lincoln being the best for Chicago, and SunTrust for ATL.
Any info on Stifel NYC?
Lincoln, unless the "analyst experience" you're looking for involves financing exposure in addition to LMM M&A then it that case RayJ, but would still pick Lincoln personally.
If you search SunTrust overview, there's a well written post on WSO about it. The information is largely up to date.
IMO i don't think any of these firms are particularly stronger, maybe Lincoln / RJ / Stifel being stronger in the M&A space versus SunTrust.
I will assume Lincoln vs RJ vs Stifel will be largely group dependent.
PitchBook's league tables have a good overview of the volume each bank has and the types of deals they work with. This should provide you with some insight into the experience you'll have as an analyst. Lincoln and RJ are doing the best, but Stifel and SunTrust are represented as well.
I see the image
Great, thanks for the heads up. WSO seems to be having a lot of lags with comments so it’s tough to tell sometimes.
Interesting, I thought Blair/Baird/HL were regarded as top MMs, but the table seems to suggest that Lincoln/KPMG/Piper/HW are up there as well. Can someone help spell this out for me?
This table ranking is based off volume, so some of those shops rank highly. Blair/Baird have slightly larger deal sizes and lower volume, so they may be less represented here.
Thank you guys. Very helpful
RJ has been climbing recently and has increasingly good exit ops, also they pay competitive street comp no matter where you are (Boston, Atlanta, Tampa etc)
Hello, Raymond James Analyst. STRH is better than your bank.
I worked at STRH and can confirm this guy's list. RJ has been doing much better M&A deals than STRH, especially after the merger has sent a lot of senior bankers packing.
I still have friends at the bank and it is as good culturally as IB can get, but RJ and Lincoln are better for M&A deals on your resume and PE exit opps. STRH does have solid MM & LMM PE exits, but the problem is you need to network / luck your way into a group that gives you exposure to M&A deals and not just admin work for Lev Fin or ECM deals.
Hope this helps.
I've heard that Raymond James's tech practice, especially a MD by the name of Scott Green, has done well as of late. As with any decision, it comes down to group placement across these three platforms.
My cousin used to work at Lincoln. He told me he loved it. great culture. The seniors are smart and demanding, but they are understanding as well. His MD helped him get his PE offer.
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