Cohen & Company Reports Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results
Second Quarter 2025 Revenue of $59.9 Million
Second Quarter 2025 Net Income Attributable to Cohen & Company Inc. of $1.4 Million, or $0.81 per Diluted Share
Second Quarter 2025 Adjusted Pre-Tax Income of $5.5 Million, or $0.94 per Diluted Share
Board Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 per Share
PHILADELPHIA and NEW YORK, July 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cohen & Company Inc. (NYSE:COHN), a financial services firm specializing in an expanding range of capital markets and asset management services, today reported financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2025.
Summary Operating Results
Three Months Ended
Six Months Ended
($ in thousands)
6/30/25
3/31/25
6/30/24
6/30/25
6/30/24
Net trading
$
10,757
$
9,211
$
8,798
$
19,968
$
18,646
Asset management
2,168
2,020
2,078
4,188
4,795
New issue and advisory
37,411
33,239
6,500
70,650
30,888
Principal transactions and other revenue
9,535
(15,730
)
(6,578
)
(6,195
)
(24,967
)
Total revenues
59,871
28,740
10,798
88,611
29,362
Compensation and benefits
44,323
21,666
10,699
65,989
25,538
Non-compensation operating expenses
8,053
6,967
6,466
15,020
13,566
Operating income (loss)
7,495
107
(6,367
)
7,602
(9,742
)
Interest expense, net
(1,496
)
(1,448
)
(1,425
)
(2,944
)
(3,091
)
Gain on sale of management contracts
837
-
-
837
-
Income (loss) from equity method affiliates
(1,437
)
2,418
(5,996
)
981
23,049
Income (loss) before income tax expense (benefit)
5,399
1,077
(13,788
)
6,476
10,216
Income tax expense (benefit)
771
139
(205
)
910
293
Net income (loss)
4,628
938
(13,583
)
5,566
9,923
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to the non-convertible non-controlling interest
(141
)
(173
)
(5,206
)
(314
)
11,064
Enterprise net income (loss)
4,769
1,111
(8,377
)
5,880
(1,141
)
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to the convertible non-controlling interest
3,361
782
(6,028
)
4,143
(815
)
Net income (loss) attributable to Cohen & Company Inc.
$
1,408
$
329
$
(2,349
)
$
1,737
$
(326
)
Fully diluted net income (loss) per share
$
0.81
$
0.19
$
(1.47
)
$
1.00
$
(0.20
)
Adjusted pre-tax income (loss) (1)
$
5,540
$
1,250
$
(8,582
)
$
6,790
$
(848
)
Fully diluted adjusted pre-tax income (loss) per share
$
0.94
$
0.22
$
(1.51
)
$
1.15
$
(0.15
)
(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 pleased with our second quarter results, which were driven by a strong performance from our full-service boutique investment banking operation, Cohen & Company Capital Markets ("CCM"). During the quarter, CCM generated $37.4 million in new issue and advisory revenue across 25 clients and is entering the second half of the year with strong momentum and a robust pipeline. In June 2025, our sponsored SPAC, Columbus Circle Capital Corp I, entered into a business combination agreement with ProCap BTC, a bitcoin-native financial services firm. As sponsor, we retained 2.1 million founder shares. Upon closing, which is expected to occur by the end of the year, the combined company will operate as ProCap Financial, Inc., and hold up to $1 billion in bitcoin on its balance sheet."
Brafman continued, "As our involvement in the SPAC market continues to grow, we are excited to have launched our SPAC-focused equity trading desk. This new trading desk generated more than $1.4 million in trading revenue in its first quarter of operation, and we expect it will serve as a complementary strategy to CCM moving forward. We remain confident in our future earnings potential and committed to creating long-term, sustained value for our stockholders, including through our quarterly dividend."
Financial Highlights
Net income attributable to Cohen & Company Inc. was $1.4 million, or $0.81 per diluted share, for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to net income of $0.3 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, and net loss of $2.3 million, or $1.47 per diluted share, for the three months ended June 30, 2024. Adjusted pre-tax income was $5.5 million, or $0.94 per diluted share, for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to adjusted pre-tax income of $1.3 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, and adjusted pre-tax loss of $8.6 million, or $1.51 per diluted share, for the three months ended June 30, 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 $59.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to $28.7 million for the prior quarter and $10.8 million for the prior year quarter.
Net trading revenue was $10.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, up $1.5 million from the prior quarter and up $2.0 million from the prior year quarter. The increase from both the prior quarters was due primarily to higher trading revenue from our SPAC equity, SBA, and mortgage groups.
Asset management revenue was $2.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, up slightly from both the prior quarters. The change from both the prior quarters was related primarily to deferred performance fees in our European funds.
New issue and advisory revenue was $37.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, up $4.2 million from the prior quarter and up $30.9 million from the prior year quarter. CCM generated $37.4 million, $33.2 million, and $6.4 million of the new issue and advisory revenue in 2Q25, 1Q25, and 2Q24, respectively.
Principal transactions and other revenue was positive $9.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to negative $15.7 million in the prior quarter and negative $6.6 million in the prior year quarter. Principal transactions revenue related to non-cash consideration received by CCM was positive $6.7 million, negative $13.1 million, and negative $5.2 million in 2Q25, 1Q25, and 2Q24, respectively.
Compensation and benefits expense during the three months ended June 30, 2025 increased $22.7 million from the prior quarter and increased $33.6 million from the prior year quarter, primarily due to fluctuations in revenue and the related variable incentive compensation. The number of Company employees was 118 as of June 30, 2025, compared to 117 as of March 31, 2025, and 121 as of June 30, 2024.
Interest expense during the three months ended June 30, 2025 was $1.5 million, including $1.2 million on our trust preferred securities debt, $0.3 million on our senior promissory notes, and $22 thousand on our bank credit facility.
Gain on sale of management contracts for the three months ended June 30, 2025 was $0.8 million, which resulted from the closing of the sale of two of the Company's legacy Alesco CDO management contracts. The Company is in the process of selling the remaining three Alesco CDO managements contracts. Once the sales are complete, there will be no future asset management revenue from the Company's legacy Alesco CDOs.
Loss from equity method affiliates for the three months ended June 30, 2025 was $1.4 million, compared to income from equity method affiliates of $2.4 million for the prior quarter and loss from equity method affiliates of $6.0 million for the prior year quarter. The loss from equity method affiliates in the current quarter was primarily due to the consolidated sponsor entity's investment in Columbus Circle Capital Corp I.
Income tax expense for the three months ended June 30, 2025 was $0.8 million, compared to income tax expense of $0.1 million in the prior quarter, and income tax benefit of $0.2 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 June 30, 2025, total equity was $92.5 million, compared to $90.3 million as of December 31, 2024; the non-convertible non-controlling interest component of total equity was $10.9 million as of June 30, 2025 and $11.5 million as of December 31, 2024. Thus, the total equity excluding the non-convertible non-controlling interest component was $81.6 million as of June 30, 2025, a $2.7 million increase 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 August 29, 2025, to stockholders of record as of August 15, 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, July 31, 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 13755190.
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, Cohen & Company Securities, LLC ("Cohen Securities") in the United States and Cohen & Company Financial (Europe) S.A. in Europe. A division of Cohen Securities, 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 June 30, 2025, the Company had approximately $2.2 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. For more information, please visit www.cohenandcompany.com.
Note 1: Adjusted pre-tax income (loss) and adjusted pre-tax income (loss) per share are non-GAAP measures of performance. Please see the discussion under "Non-GAAP Measures" below. Also see the tables below for the reconciliations of non-GAAP measures of performance to their corresponding GAAP measures of performance.
Forward-looking Statements
This communication contains certain statements, estimates, and forecasts with respect to future performance and events. These statements, estimates, and forecasts are "forward-looking statements." In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ...
