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Will Cetera Be Sold in a Fire Sale?

02:40 21 October in In the News by rafferty

October 20, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor Industry experts debate what's behind the reports that RCAP might sell Cetera for as little as $700 million The news regarding RCS Capital (RCAP), owner of the Cetera Financial Group of independent broker-dealers, is not getting better. The question that many industry watchers have is: How much worse will it get? It shares trade near $1.15, down sharply from about $4.25 in early August and way off its two-year high of about $39.50. The firm’s market capitalization stands at under $100 million. While Bloomberg News reported on Monday that RCAP might sell Cetera for as little as $700 million, though, an equity analyst following the company says that figure is simply too low. At least one industry expert, however, disagrees with that view. “A 10/19 Bloomberg article indicated RCAP was looking...

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Indie HD Vest Bought by Blucora, Maker of TaxACT, for $580M

23:48 14 October in In the News by rafferty

October 14, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   The tax-software firm hopes to boost business by aligning with the indie broker-dealer, which has about 4,500 reps HD Vest, which has about 4,500 affiliated independent-contractor advisors, is being sold to Blucora (BCOR), the company formerly called InfoSpace and maker of the TaxACT tax-preparation software, for about $580 million. The deal is expected to close either late this year or early next year. For the past four years, HD Vest has been owned by an private equity investor group led by Parthenon Capital Partners; the group includes Lovell Minnick Partners and Fisher Lynch. “Part of the reason they wanted to partner with HD has to do with unlocking the value of their 5.5 million customers who do tax returns with TaxACT each year,” said HD Vest President and...

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What’s Next for LPL, Marcato & Casady?

15:51 07 October in In the News by rafferty

October 6, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   With active investor Richard McGuire snapping at its heels, the independent broker-dealer may have to up its game LPL Financial (LPLA) experts share regular forecasts on market trends and strategy. These days, outsiders are busy predicting what could happen over the next year or so two weeks after the hedge fund group Marcato Capital took a 6.3% stake in the independent broker-dealer. UBS downgraded its rating on LPL last week, helping to push its stock price down to about $36. It now trades near $39, down from its 52-week high of roughly $48. “LPL’s stock price has languished,” said Chip Roame, head of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, a research and consulting group. That downward trend in its equity price may have prompted Marcato, which is led by Richard McGuire,...