Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Wed, Jun 25, 2025, 2:33 PM3 min read

• Jefferies reported a modest decline in revenue and a substantial drop in earnings in its fiscal Q2.

• Weakness in fixed-income activity offset relatively good performance in equities and advisory services.

• CEO Richard Handler is increasingly optimistic about a potential rebound in the second half of 2025.

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Here's our initial take on Jefferies Financial Group's (NYSE: JEF) fiscal second-quarter financial report.

Jefferies didn't have very high expectations coming into Q2, but the company still wasn't able to satisfy investors fully. Earnings came in around $0.03 per share less than the analysts' consensus had expected, and a slightly smaller drop in revenue than most were expecting wasn't enough to restore confidence in the financial institution's overall health.

Jefferies pointed to several countervailing factors affecting its results. Within its investment banking segment, Jefferies saw a massive uptick in advisory revenue, spurred by gains in market share and greater levels of activity in mergers and acquisitions. Weighing against those gains, though, was an equally large drop in equity underwriting activity. The net result was a decline in the segment's overall sales year over year.

Meanwhile, on the capital markets side of the business, equities fared well, particularly in Europe and Asia. Jefferies' derivatives business was also healthy. Fixed income revenue was down significantly, though, as volatility led to a tough trading environment for bonds.

Jefferies shares moved slightly lower on the news, as investors dealt with the earnings miss. The stock was trading down almost 2% in the first 45 minutes of after-hours trading following the release of the latest financial report Wednesday afternoon.

The move lower threatened to bring to an end a rebound that saw the stock rise roughly 42% from its April lows. Yet even with the recent gains, Jefferies struggled early in 2025, and it remains down about 29% from where it started the year.

Part of the reason for the bottom-line hit was a notable rise in non-interest expenses. Jefferies pointed to higher brokerage and clearing fees, which were consistent to some extent with higher trading volumes for various securities products. In addition, though, Jefferies spent more on business development as well as technology and communications expenses.