Jefferies Group Inc., the investment bank bent on outgrowing its boutique designation, grew headcount by 5% in the second quarter.
Following two years of aggressive additions, the New York-based firm added 140 workers to bring its headcount to 3,222, according to its earnings release this morning. It now has about 400 workers more than it did a year ago, a 14.2% gain.
The growth, however, was expensive. Jefferies forked out 12.4% more in compensation than it did in the year-earlier quarter, while only posting an 8.9% revenue gain.
The firm reported a profit of $80.6 million, or 36 cents a share, a decrease of $3.2 million, or 3.8%, from the year-earlier period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 40 cents a share.
The bank's compensation-to-revenue ratio, a key metric for shareholders, climbed slightly to 59%.
Jefferies CEO Richard Handler said recently that the pace of the firm's hiring will slow in the second half of the year as it focuses on "selected additions," as opposed to "whole scale" hiring.
The bank will also grow by another 13%, or 430 positions, as it folds in its acquisition of Prudential Financial's commodities trading and derivatives business, which it purchased in April.
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