SunTrust or Stifel or Raymond James or Lincoln for IB

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?

 

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?

 

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.

 
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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.

 

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?

 
  1. Raymond James
  2. Lincoln
  3. (tie) Suntrust & Stifel

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)

 

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.

 

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