Investment Banking & Brokerage

SWS Group (NYSE: SWS) is trading significantly higher today. At the time of posting, shares of SWS were trading at $5.91, up 19.88% from Wednesday's close.

$15 billion isn't good enough anymore for Groupon, and we sure know $6 billion is chump change to these guys. It think it's worth around $25 billion. The online coupon company has held talks with banks that would value the company as high as $25 billion. This comes from two people close to...

KBW is lowering its PT on shares of Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR) from $36.50 to $35. Evercore Partners closed Wednesday at $30.53.

KBW is lowering its 1Q11 estimates on Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL) to a loss of ($0.31) from $0.38 as it “looks like several deals that were expected to close in 1Q11 are pushed out to 2Q11.” “Also, the base level of comp. has risen due to hiring and awards of RSUs are expensed during...

KBW reports that Lazard Ltd. (NASDAQ: LAZ) has booked approximately $110 mil. in advisory revs QTD and “we estimate that there is a minimum of $60 mil. still to be recognized by 3/30/11.” KBW is maintaining its $52 PT and Outperform rating on shares of Lazard, which closed Wednesday at $39.52.

CIGNA (NYSE: CI) and EMD Serono, Inc. have entered into the nation's first outcomes-based contract for a specialty medication, aimed at improving the health of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The CIGNA and EMD Serono contract is designed to help people with multiple sclerosis prevent...

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) today released its Monthly Activity Report for February 2011. Daily Average Revenue Trades for February were 185,717, a three percent increase from January and a 34 percent increase from the year-ago period. The company ended the month with...

By Justin Rohrlich American states are facing a combined $125 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, which has been blamed on, variously, labor costs, Medicaid spending, loss of payroll taxes due to high unemployment, and an end to federal subsidies. Budget-watchers have their eyes on...

Sanders Morris Harris Group (NASDAQ: SMHG) reported its Q4 EPS at $0.15, versus the consensus of $0.09. SMHG reported its Q4 revenue at $46.37 million, versus the consensus of $44.87 million. SMHG shares dropped 0.15% to close at $6.80 yesterday. Read more from Benzinga's Company news.

Buffett made a big splash into freight transportation with Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) purchase of Burlington Railroad with his announcement in November 2009. Lately, Berkshire Hathaway has increased its mounting cash hoard due to lucrative contracts with Goldman Sachs (GS) and General Electric (...

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) signed a consent decree with the FDA to put three manufacturing plants under years of tight regulatory scrutiny. Something tells me internal sales of Tylenol are about to skyrocket. Blockbuster agreed to sell itself to a group of hedge funds, avoiding liquidation...

Goldman Sachs retains its Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) Sell rating and lowered Jefferies Group's price target from $24 to $23 in a research report. In the report, Goldman Sachs states, "We lower our F1Q11 and F2011-F2013 estimates on JEF owing to a lower pace of activity than we had expected,...

Below are the top small-cap investment brokerage-regional stocks on the NYSE and the NASDAQ in terms of dividend yield. Arlington Asset Investment Corp (NYSE: AI) has a dividend yield of 8.70%. AI's shares closed at $27.99 yesterday. THL Credit Inc (NASDAQ: TCRD) has a dividend yield of 4.40%....

Cowen Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: COWN) today announced that Edward Nash has joined the firm as Director and Senior Research Analyst. Based in New York, Mr. Nash will cover biotechnology in the health care sector of Cowen's Research group and report to Barry Tarasoff, Cowen's Director of Research.

On CNBC's Fast Money, Tim Seymour said that you should buy the weakness in General Motors Company (NYSE: GM), because it is excelling in sales overseas. General Motors Company (GM) fell 1.44% today, and it closed at $32.25. Guy Adami likes The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX). He said that it...