Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies announced it is establishing a new infrastructure debt advisory team in its London office, led by industry veteran Stewart Robinson. Hugo Muller and Anish Shah have been hired as directors, and the team will be fully integrated into the firm's energy, power and infrastructure group, focused on advising infrastructure companies on debt financing and capital raising transactions. Robinson most recently served as a managing director and EMEA head of debt advisory at Nomura International Ltd., and previously held roles at Cantor Fitzgerald, Societe Generale, Royal Bank of Canada and Barclays Capital. Muller and Shah were previously executive directors in the debt advisory team at Nomura in London, and together bring over 20 years of debt financing experience focused on infrastructure and energy. Paul Leece, managing director and global head of infrastructure, said the team's experience across debt advisory, private placements, project bonds and infrastructure financing will strengthen the firm's integrated offering.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. finished up 8% last week, a sharp rebound from Monday's broader tech selloff. The move outpaced the Philadelphia semiconductor index, which gained just 0.8% for the week, while Nvidia rose almost 2%. Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating and $600 price target on Thursday, saying CPU and GPU product launches remained on track and demand was still outpacing available supply. AMD also told customers it will raise prices by approximately 10% on some AI accelerators and GPUs in the fourth quarter, citing rising production costs. Wall Street's average target of $617 sat about 10% above the stock's then-current price, based on 55 analysts tracked, with 39 Buy ratings, five Outperforms and 11 Holds.

Piper Sandler initiated coverage of Nvidia with an overweight rating and a $300 price target, calling the company the "outright leader in AI compute." Analyst David O'Connor launched the call as part of a broader initiation across AI chipmakers, estimating Nvidia holds roughly 80% of the AI compute market and about 50% of unit shipments, with industry supply expected to stay constrained for another two to three years. The firm projects Nvidia revenue growing at a 47% compound annual rate through fiscal 2030, with earnings reaching $30 a share, and derives the $300 target from a 14 times multiple on calendar 2028 estimates. That target sits about 34% above the prior close but roughly 8% below the average 12-month analyst target of $327.18, which carries 58 buy ratings against one sell; BMO Capital has a $340 target, Wedbush's Dan Ives a $250 base case for the end of 2026, and JPMorgan a $265 target for the rest of 2026. The initiation landed the same week Bloomberg reported the Justice Department is investigating whether Nvidia structured its roughly $20 billion licensing agreement with AI chip startup Groq to avoid antitrust review, sending shares down about 1%. Nvidia reported $96.2 billion in revenue for the quarter ended July 26, up 106% from a year earlier, with data center revenue of $89.0 billion, gross margin of 75%, and adjusted earnings of $2.22 a share, and guided to $108 billion in revenue for the current quarter.

Piper Sandler Companies has launched equities trading in Europe and opened a new office in Paris, led by Ben Allen, head of sales and trading for Piper Sandler Europe. The firm appointed two strategic hires for the Paris office: Louis Renaudie as senior equity sales, most recently with BNP Paribas' U.S. and international equities distribution business in Paris, and Louis Carpentier as a senior equity sales-trader, previously in global equity trading at Edmond de Rothschild and before that at Société Générale Private Banking France. Through Piper Sandler Europe, the firm has received regulatory approval in France for equities trading and secured passporting rights across Europe. As part of the European expansion plan, Piper Sandler has hired a total of eight sales and trading professionals, following last year's opening of an office in Zurich, Switzerland led by Alex Molloy, Vincenzo Pescuma and Luigi Colazzo. Piper Sandler was voted by the buyside as the #1 small and mid-cap liquidity provider in the 2025 Extel U.S. Equity Trading Study, and its equity research platform is consistently ranked among the top 10 investment banks in the world for the largest coverage universe of U.S. equities, according to Thomson Reuters' Starmine.

Piper Sandler Companies reported its 11th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth, with corporate investment banking revenues hitting a record first-half performance of $636 million, up 30% year-over-year. Advisory services achieved record second-quarter revenues of $274 million, up 34% year-over-year, driven by strong contributions from financial services and healthcare. The company maintained an operating margin of 21.8% in the second quarter, with operating income growth outpacing revenue growth. Piper Sandler returned $215 million to shareholders in the first half of 2026 through dividends and share repurchases. However, fixed income revenues declined sequentially and year-over-year due to challenging market conditions, and corporate financing revenues fell sharply from the first quarter.

StockStory identified Piper Sandler and EVERTEC as two financials stocks with promising prospects while questioning T. Rowe Price. Piper Sandler posted 19.6% annual revenue growth over the last two years and 34.8% annual earnings per share growth, with a 15.3% return on equity. EVERTEC achieved 13.3% annual revenue growth and 13% annual earnings per share growth over the same period, also demonstrating a stellar return on equity. In contrast, T. Rowe Price saw only 2.6% annual revenue growth over five years and a 1.4% annual decline in earnings per share, leading StockStory to flag it as a stock to avoid. The broader financials sector gained just 1.4% over the past six months, trailing the S&P 500's 6.2% rise.

Piper Sandler and PJT Partners saw their shares rise sharply in afternoon trading, driven by a broader surge in investment banking and trading revenues that fueled strong second-quarter earnings for major banks. Piper Sandler climbed 3.2 percent while PJT jumped 4 percent, as the market reacted to what JPMorgan's CFO called a booming environment for dealmaking. Advisory fees from mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings reached their highest levels since 2021, signaling the most bullish deal climate in years. Goldman Sachs also beat profit expectations partly due to increased dealmaking, lifting its stock and underscoring robust corporate appetite for transactions. PJT's move was considered meaningful by the market, though the stock has had only eight moves greater than 5 percent over the past year and remains down 2.8 percent year-to-date, trading 13.9 percent below its 52-week high.

StockStory identifies two value stocks with compelling risk-reward profiles and one facing headwinds. Pfizer, trading at $24.23 per share with a forward P/E of 8.6x, is noted for its $63.32 billion revenue base, a 19.2 percentage point adjusted operating margin improvement over two years, and an 18.1% ROIC. Piper Sandler, at $72.14 per share and 15.2x forward P/E, is highlighted for 19.6% annual revenue growth and 34.8% annual EPS growth over two years, with a 15.3% ROE. Tyson Foods, priced at $58.10 with a 13x forward P/E, is flagged as risky due to flat unit sales, a low 7.1% gross margin, and a 3.8% annual EPS decline over three years despite revenue growth.

President Donald Trump has been publicly endorsing Dell stock and buying shares himself, following a $6 billion donation from Michael and Susan Dell to fund new government-backed savings accounts for newborns. Trump made 24 trades in Dell last year with net purchases of $545,000, and on July 6 urged supporters to buy Dell computers. Dell's stock has surged more than 230% this year, driven by AI server demand that pushed quarterly revenue up 88% and diluted earnings per share up 282%. Piper Sandler analyst James Fish raised his price target to $497, implying about 19% upside from the July 7 close of roughly $417, though gross margins have declined to 17.8%.

Block has secured a new partnership with Ladurée Canada to power payments and commerce operations across the chain, following its removal from several Russell Growth indices. Piper Sandler raised its rating on Block shares to Overweight, reflecting a shift in analyst stance. The stock most recently closed at $78.02, with a return of 6.8% over the past week and 19.8% year to date, while the five-year return is down 67.6%. The combination of index removal, new commercial wins in Canada, and a fresh analyst view leaves Block in a different position than even a few months ago.

Piper Sandler has hired John D'Amico as a managing director in its restructuring group. D'Amico brings approximately 25 years of investment banking and corporate advisory experience, having advised on complex Chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, and special situation transactions. He joins from senior roles in the restructuring groups of Miller Buckfire and Jefferies, and previously held positions at Clear Channel Communications and ING Barings Furman Selz. Matthew Mintzer, global co-head of the restructuring group, said D'Amico's track record will be invaluable as the firm continues to grow its restructuring practice.

Taysha Gene Therapies has priced an underwritten public offering expected to generate approximately $200 million in gross proceeds. The offering includes 32,500,001 shares of common stock at $6.00 per share and pre-funded warrants to purchase 833,333 shares at $5.999 per warrant, before underwriting discounts and commissions. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5,000,000 shares of common stock. Jefferies, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Piper Sandler and Cantor are acting as joint book-running managers, with Baird as lead manager. The offering is expected to close on or about June 26, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

Columbia Financial, Inc. announced preliminary results showing its subscription offering received over 5,000 orders representing approximately $925 million in connection with the second-step conversion of Columbia Bank MHC from mutual to stock form. The company also increased the maximum individual purchase limit from 300,000 shares, or $3.0 million, to 800,000 shares, or $8.0 million, and the maximum group purchase limit from 1,000,000 shares, or $10.0 million, to 5,000,000 shares, or $50.0 million. Only subscribers who ordered the maximum number of shares will be resolicited to increase their orders up to the new limits, with supplemental stock order forms due by 2:00 p.m. Eastern time on June 30, 2026. All other eligible subscribers will have their orders filled in full, and shares not subscribed for will be offered at $10.00 per share in a firm commitment underwritten offering led by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc., A Stifel Company, with Piper Sandler & Co. as co-book running manager and Brean Capital, LLC as co-manager. Completion of the offering remains subject to stockholder and member approvals, final regulatory approvals including an updated independent appraisal, and the sale of at least 142,375,000 shares of common stock at the adjusted minimum of the offering range.