PJT Partners NYSE: PJT reported first-quarter 2026 revenue, adjusted pre-tax income, and adjusted earnings per share that management said were all records for a first quarter, driven by strength across the firm’s advisory and fundraising-related businesses amid what executives described as a volatile macro backdrop.
Record first-quarter results and capital returns
Chairman and CEO Paul Taubman said the firm delivered “strong performance in all of our businesses, with Strategic Advisory leading the way,” despite “geopolitical uncertainties and other risks” that pressured company valuations during the quarter. Taubman added that the firm’s outlook “remained unchanged.”
CFO Helen Meates said total first-quarter revenue was $418 million, up 29% year-over-year. Adjusted pre-tax income was a record $84 million, compared with $66 million a year earlier, and the adjusted pre-tax margin improved to 20.1% from 17.3%.
On capital return, management highlighted sizable buybacks and a new authorization:
- Meates said the firm repurchased about 1.6 million shares and share equivalents in the quarter, committing a record $244 million to repurchases.
- Taubman said the repurchases more than offset year-end 2025 equity issuance, and noted the firm has allocated “almost $1 billion” to repurchase shares and partnership units in just over two years.
- The board authorized a new $800 million open-market share repurchase program.
- The board approved a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share.
Meates said PJT ended the quarter with $388 million in cash equivalents and short-term investments, $535 million in net working capital, and no outstanding debt.
Expenses, tax rate, and staffing
Meates said adjusted compensation expense was accrued at 66.5% of revenue, compared with 67.5% in the first quarter of 2025. She called 66.5% management’s “current best estimate for the full year 2026.”
Adjusted non-compensation expense totaled $56 million, up 14% year-over-year, driven primarily by higher travel and business-related costs, higher occupancy costs tied to an expanding global office footprint, and higher professional fees. As a share of revenue, adjusted non-compensation expense was 13.4%, down from 15.2% a year ago. Meates said the firm continues to expect 2026 non-compensation expense to grow about 12%, while noting that growth in travel and AI-related investments is “more uncertain this year.”
On taxes, Meates said the first-quarter effective tax rate was 20.5%, versus 14.1% for full-year 2025, primarily due to a lower tax benefit from the delivery of vested shares in the quarter. She said the firm currently expects a full-year effective tax rate “around 20.5%.” Adjusted as-converted EPS was $1.54, up from $1.05 a year earlier, on a weighted average share count of 43.3 million shares.
Taubman also emphasized recruiting, saying the firm added eight new partners in the first quarter and expects to “remain very active in recruiting senior professionals.” In response to a later question about restructuring partner headcount, Meates said the group increased from 18 to 21, reflecting a combination of hires and internal promotions.
Business performance: Strategic Advisory, Restructuring, and Park Hill
Taubman said the “dislocated market environment” supported activity across lines of business.
Restructuring: Taubman said the firm continues to see “sustained demand for liability management and restructuring advice,” with first-quarter restructuring revenue “comfortably above year-ago levels.” He said PJT expects activity to continue as companies across industries manage over-levered balance sheets, challenged business models, technological disruption, and a complex geopolitical environment. In Q&A, he reiterated that the firm feels “very comfortable” about its competitive position and expects all businesses to be “quite active in 2026,” while cautioning that the timing of revenue recognition can shift based on when “chunky assignments” close.
PJT Park Hill: Taubman said Park Hill revenue was “comfortably above year-ago levels,” as growth in Private Capital Solutions more than offset a decline in primary fundraising revenue. He characterized the primary fundraising market as challenging, but said the firm expects primary fundraising revenue to “broadly match our high water levels” supported by a “high-quality fundraising pipeline” seeing strong investor interest. He described the secondaries market as positioned for another year of “robust growth,” driven by liquidity demand from both GPs and LPs and rising secondary investor appetite.
Strategic Advisory: Taubman said Strategic Advisory posted record first-quarter performance, with revenue increasing “significantly” year-over-year. He said the first quarter included “large swings in market sentiment” amid geopolitical developments and “profound AI debates,” which, in his view, heightened CEO and board urgency to act both offensively and defensively. Taubman said the firm’s mandate count is now at record levels, up about 15% from a year ago, and that the “pre-announced revenue pipeline” has grown even more and is also at record levels, though he noted announced pending closed backlog was below year-ago levels.
Key themes from Q&A: private credit, software uncertainty, and deal geography
Analysts repeatedly asked about how private credit conditions, software-sector dislocation, and regional trends could affect M&A and restructuring activity.
On private credit and restructuring demand, Taubman said PJT has long expected a “long cycle of elevated restructuring liability management activity,” citing looser underwriting standards during 2019–2022 and a “very dynamic world” that has shifted the outlook for some businesses. He said private credit has greater exposure because of its growth in those “benign credit years” and because it has “a greater than average allocation to the broader software marketplace.” While he said he does not see “systemic issues,” he expects developments to “slow the pace and potentially cause a retreat in retail flows,” and he characterized the implications as more of a long-term “appetite for retail interest” issue than systemic risk.
On software-sector uncertainty, Taubman told analysts that debates are less about near-term profitability and more about “terminal value,” which can complicate refinancing when capital structures were built around loan-to-value assumptions. He said this dynamic can also make private equity monetizations harder, potentially increasing demand for “alternative liquidity options,” which he said fits PJT’s Private Capital Solutions business. He added that consolidation could rise in parts of software “at the right time,” but suggested the market is still “waiting and watching and absorbing” before broader repricing and increased activity.
Asked about financing conditions and whether M&A financing could shift back toward banks, Taubman said he expects private credit and syndicated bank financing to “coexist,” and pushed back on the idea that all financing would migrate to private credit. He also emphasized PJT’s independence, saying the firm is “agnostic” about where clients finance and can advise on whether private credit or the syndicated market is best for a specific deal.
On regional deal activity, Taubman said the U.S. remains “the biggest, deepest, most vibrant” market, but that Europe is likely seeing faster year-over-year growth. He attributed this to an increasing push to create “more scaled European competitors” in areas such as defense, financials and communications, and to valuation disconnects for companies listed in Europe that have supported take-private opportunities.
AI investments: near-term cost, uncertain benefit
Meates said AI-related spending contributed to uncertainty around non-compensation expense growth. She said the firm has been purchasing licenses and investing in data organization, security, and infrastructure, and expects additional technical consulting expense. In the near term, she said those investments are a cost “as opposed to a benefit,” adding that it is “too early to say what the impact will be.”
Taubman closed the call by thanking participants and said the firm expects to report second-quarter results in the summer.
About PJT Partners NYSE: PJT
PJT Partners is a global advisory-focused investment bank that delivers strategic advisory, restructuring and special situations, and capital solutions to corporations, partnerships, and governments. The firm operates through three primary business segments: Strategic Advisory, which covers mergers and acquisitions, shareholder advisory, and capital markets advisory; Restructuring and Special Situations, which provides advice on debt and liability management, distressed mergers and acquisitions, and financial restructurings; and Park Hill, the firm's dedicated capital-raising and secondary advisory business for private equity, real estate, hedge funds, and infrastructure.
The Strategic Advisory practice at PJT Partners assists clients with complex transactions such as cross-border mergers, spin-offs, divestitures, and takeover defenses, drawing on deep industry expertise and global reach.
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