Evercore Partners (NYSE: EVR) reported Q1 EPS of $1.66, $0.10 better than the analyst estimate of $1.56. Revenue for the quarter came in at $419.8 million versus the consensus estimate of $418.35 million.

Ralph Schlosstein, President and Chief Executive Officer

"While our revenues and operating earnings were below our record first quarter last year, we experienced balanced contributions from all of our businesses in the first quarter, with increased numbers of completed transactions in both Advisory and Underwriting. We continued to build our backlog of assignments and provided independent research of value to our institutional investor clients," said Ralph Schlosstein, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Human capital remains the most important investment that we make in our business, and we continued to add talent throughout the firm. We returned $137 million of capital to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in the first quarter. Our Board reviewed our capital return objectives in April, increasing our quarterly dividend to $0.58 per quarter, a 16% increase. The Board also affirmed our objective of offsetting the dilution associated with bonus and new hire equity and returning all earnings not required for investment in future growth through dividends and share repurchases."

John S. Weinberg, Executive Chairman

"We continue to find talented professionals at all levels who are attracted to our platform," said John S. Weinberg, Executive Chairman. "Our objective is to further broaden our Advisory and Research coverage of key industries and product areas to provide the highest level service and advice to our clients."

Roger C. Altman, Founder and Senior Chairman

"The fundamentals underpinning the transaction market remain solid. Low interest rates, good credit availability, favorable equity valuations and reasonable levels of business confidence. Evercore is benefiting from these fundamentals and our own continued gains in market share. This is evident in our having advised on three of the five largest announced mergers around the world for 2019 to date," said Roger C. Altman, Founder and Senior Chairman.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Evercore Partners (EVR) click here.