Cohen & Company Reports First Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Cohen & Company Inc. (NYSE American: COHN), a financial services firm specializing in an expanding range of capital markets and asset management services, today reported financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2025. Summary Operating Results Three Months Ended
($ in thousands) 3/31/25 12/31/24 3/31/24

Net trading $ 9,211 $ 8,947 $ 9,848
Asset management 2,020 2,067 2,717
New issue and advisory 33,239 10,075 24,388
Principal transactions and other revenue (15,730 ) (2,548 ) (18,389 )
Total revenues 28,740 18,541 18,564

Compensation and benefits 21,666 12,935 14,839
Non-compensation operating expenses 6,967 11,109 7,100
Operating income (loss) 107 (5,503 ) (3,375 )

Interest expense, net (1,448 ) (1,474 ) (1,666 )
Income (loss) from equity method affiliates 2,418 (662 ) 29,045
Income (loss) before income tax expense (benefit) 1,077 (7,639 ) 24,004

Income tax expense (benefit) 139 (764 ) 498
Net income (loss) 938 (6,875 ) 23,506
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to the non-convertible non-controlling interest (173 ) 66 16,270
Enterprise net income (loss) 1,111 (6,941 ) 7,236
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to the convertible non-controlling interest 782 (4,988 ) 5,213
Net income (loss) attributable to Cohen & Company Inc. $ 329 $ (1,953 ) $ 2,023
Fully diluted net income (loss) per share $ 0.19 $ (1.21 ) $ 1.28

Adjusted pre-tax income (loss) (1) $ 1,250 $ (7,705 ) $ 7,734
Fully diluted adjusted pre-tax income (loss) per share $ 0.22 $ (1.32 ) $ 1.37

(1) Adjusted pre-tax income (loss) is not a measure recognized under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). See Note 1 below.
Lester Brafman, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen & Company, said, “We are encouraged by our first quarter results, reflecting strong performance from our full-service boutique investment banking operation, Cohen & Company Capital Markets (“CCM”), which generated $20.1 million of net revenue. In April this year, we announced the launch of a new SPAC-focused equity trading desk, creating a synergistic opportunity to build on CCM’s momentum and further leverage its insights and capabilities.” Brafman continued, “Despite ongoing mark-to-market headwinds in our principal investing portfolio, we remain focused on disciplined execution and are well positioned for continued growth. We remain confident in our future earnings potential and committed to enhancing long-term, sustained value for our stockholders, through the continued return of capital, including our quarterly dividend.” Financial Highlights Net income attributable to Cohen & Company Inc. was $0.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to net loss of $2.0 million, or $1.21 per diluted share, for the three months ended December 31, 2024, and net income of $2.0 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Adjusted pre-tax income was $1.3 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to adjusted pre-tax loss of $7.7 million, or $1.32 per diluted share, for the three months ended December 31, 2024, and adjusted pre-tax income of $7.7 million, or $1.37 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Adjusted pre-tax income (loss) and adjusted pre-tax income (loss) per diluted share are not measures recognized under GAAP. See Note 1 below.

Revenues were $28.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to $18.5 million for the prior quarter and $18.6 million for the prior year quarter.

Net trading revenue was $9.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, up $0.3 million from the prior quarter and down $0.6 million from the prior year quarter. The increase from the prior quarter was due primarily to higher trading revenue from our SBA and corporate groups, while the decrease from the prior year quarter was due primarily to lower trading revenue from our municipal, treasury, and corporate groups.

Asset management revenue was $2.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, down slightly from the prior quarter and down $0.7 million from the prior year quarter. The change from the prior year quarter was related primarily to deferred performance fees in one of our European funds.

New issue and advisory revenue was $33.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, up $23.2 million from the prior quarter and up $8.9 million from the prior year quarter. CCM generated $33.2 million, $9.4 million, and $24.4 million of the new issue and advisory revenue in 1Q25, 4Q24, and 1Q24, respectively.

Principal transactions and other revenue was negative $15.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to negative $2.5 million in the prior quarter and negative $18.4 million in the prior year quarter. Principal transactions revenue related to non-cash consideration received by CCM was negative $13.1 million, negative $1.9 million, and negative $11.5 million in 1Q25, 4Q24, and 1Q24, respectively.

Compensation and benefits expense during the three months ended March 31, 2025 increased $8.7 million from the prior quarter and increased $6.8 million from the prior year quarter. The number of Company employees was 117 as of March 31, 2025, compared to 113 as of December 31, 2024, and 116 as of March 31, 2024.

Interest expense during the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $1.4 million, including $1.1 million on our trust preferred securities debt, $0.3 million on our senior promissory notes, and $18 thousand on our bank credit facility.

Income from equity method affiliates for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $2.4 million, compared to loss from equity method affiliates of $0.7 million for the prior quarter and income from equity method affiliates of $29.0 million for the prior year quarter. Income (loss) from equity method affiliates fluctuates primarily depending on the timing of the closing of the business combinations by the Company’s equity method investees that are sponsors of SPACs, which typically results in changes to the value of founder shares allocable to the Company by the SPAC sponsors. Also, certain sponsors of SPACs hold the founder shares for some period after the business combination, which may cause income (loss) for equity method affiliates to further fluctuate. During the first quarter of 2025, there was one business combination that closed, which generated the majority of the quarter’s income from equity method affiliates. During the first quarter of 2024, there were six business combinations that closed, which resulted in that quarter’s significant income from equity method affiliates.

Income tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $0.1 million, compared to income tax benefit of $0.8 million in the prior quarter, and income tax expense of $0.5 million in the prior year quarter. The Company will continue to evaluate its operations on a quarterly basis and may adjust the valuation allowance applied against the Company's net operating loss and net capital loss tax assets. Future adjustments could be material and may result in additional tax benefit or tax expense. Total Equity and Dividend Declaration As of March 31, 2025, total equity was $85.7 million, compared to $90.3 million as of December 31, 2024; the non-convertible non-controlling interest component of total equity was $8.4 million as of March 31, 2025 and $11.5 million as of December 31, 2024. Thus, the total equity excluding the non-convertible non-controlling interest component was $77.3 million as of March 31, 2025, a $1.5 million decrease from $78.8 million as of December 31, 2024.

The Company’s Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, payable on June 2, 2025, to stockholders of record as of May 16, 2025. The Board of Directors will continue to evaluate the dividend policy each quarter, and future decisions regarding dividends may be impacted by quarterly operating results and the Company’s capital needs.
Conference Call The Company will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), today, May 1, 2025, to discuss these results. The conference call will be available via webcast. Interested parties can access the webcast by clicking the webcast link on the Company’s homepage at www.cohenandcompany.com. Those wishing to listen to the conference call with operator assistance can dial (877) 524-8416 (domestic) or +1 (412) 902-1028 (international). A replay of the call will be available for three days following the call by dialing (877) 660-6853 or (201) 612-7415, with participant passcode 13753600. About Cohen & Company Cohen & Company is a financial services company specializing in an expanding range of capital markets and asset management services. Cohen & Company’s operating segments are Capital Markets, Asset Management, and Principal Investing. The Capital Markets segment consists of fixed income sales, trading, gestation repo financing, new issue placements in corporate and securitized products, underwriting, and advisory services, operating primarily through Cohen & Company’s subsidiaries, J.V.B. Financial Group, LLC in the United States and Cohen & Company Financial (Europe) S.A. in Europe. A division of JVB, Cohen & Company Capital Markets (“CCM”) is the Company’s full-service boutique investment bank that focuses on mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), capital markets, and SPAC advisory services. The Capital Markets business segment also includes investment returns on financial instruments that the Company has received as consideration for advisory, underwriting, and new issue placement services provided by CCM. The Asset Management segment manages assets through collateralized debt obligations, managed accounts, joint ventures, and investment funds. As of March 31, 2025, the Company had approximately $2.3 billion of assets under management in primarily fixed income assets in a variety of asset classes including U.S. and European bank and insurance trust preferred securities, debt issued by small and medium sized European, U.S., and Bermudian insurance and reinsurance companies, equity interests of SPACs and their sponsor entities, and commercial real estate loans. The Principal Investing segment is comprised primarily of investments the Company holds related to its SPAC franchise and other investments the Company has made for the purpose of earning an investment return rather than investments made to support its trading or other capital markets business activity.... Read more

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