Houlihan Lokey, Inc. · HLI · FY2026 Q3 · Calendar Q1 2026

Houlihan Lokey’s Q3 growth broadens, with expansion and execution risks in view

Q3 FY2026 results support the view that resilient deal activity and broader service capabilities can sustain growth: revenue and adjusted EPS rose year over year, while Corporate Finance and Restructuring both advanced. The thesis depends on M&A momentum holding up and new acquisitions and DataBank translating into durable contributions; restructuring pressure and integration costs could temper progress.

Reported After market closeNYSEFinancial Services $10.19B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $1.94 Consensus $1.85
EPS surprise +4.9% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $717.1M Consensus $697.2M
Revenue surprise +2.9% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move -6.5% Event window
SPY move -0.2% Same window
Abnormal move -6.3% Stock minus SPY
Volume 2.9× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -3.0% Up to 20 sessions
HLISPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Growth continued from the prior quarter, with Q3 revenue up 13% year over year to $717 million and adjusted EPS up 18% to $1.94. The quarter added European expansion through two acquisitions and introduced DataBank, while management maintained its guidance sentiment and expressed confidence in the FY2027 outlook.

Guidance delta

Guidance sentiment was maintained. Management expressed confidence in the FY2027 outlook, citing continued M&A momentum and Capital Solutions growth; no revised quantitative guidance was supplied in the analysis.

Key takeaways

  • Revenue of $717 million and adjusted EPS of $1.94 rose 13% and 18% year over year, respectively, and both exceeded consensus estimates.
  • Corporate Finance revenue was $474 million, up 12%; Financial Restructuring revenue was $156 million, up 19%.
  • The Mellon Capital real-estate advisory business and O'Dare Partners transactions expand capabilities and European reach.
  • DataBank creates a new data-monetization initiative, but its commercial traction and revenue potential remain unproven in the supplied analysis.

Management priorities

  • Complete the O'Dare Partners acquisition and continue European hiring and service expansion.
  • Develop and monetize the DataBank data offering.
  • Expand Capital Solutions across market segments while balancing share repurchases with strategic acquisitions.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
HLI EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 10 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q1 '25 estimate $1.21 Q1 '25 actual $1.22, match Q2 '25 estimate $1.31 Q2 '25 actual $1.46, beat Q1 '26 estimate $1.68 Q1 '26 actual $2.14, beat Q2 '26 estimate $1.68 Q2 '26 actual $1.84, beat Q3 '26 estimate $1.85 Q3 '26 actual $1.94, beat Q4 '26 estimate $1.79 Q4 '26 actual $1.63, miss Q1 '27 estimate $1.64 Q1 '27 actual $1.35, miss Q2 '27 estimate $1.63 Q2 '27 actual $1.85, beat Q3 '27 estimate $2.01 Q4 '27 estimate $2.07 Q1 '28 estimate $1.93 Q2 '28 estimate $2.10
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy16 ratings
Bullish1062.5%
Neutral531.3%
Bearish16.2%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$146.44Current
$76Low
$168Average
$211High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted current price from FN2's market snapshot as of Nov 3, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
JP Morgan Neutral NeutralMaintainOct 29, 2026
Citizens Market Outperform Market PerformUpgradeOct 9, 2026
Morgan Stanley Overweight OverweightMaintainOct 8, 2026
UBS Neutral NeutralMaintainOct 7, 2026
BMO Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainAug 3, 2026
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Outperform OutperformMaintainJul 30, 2026
Goldman Sachs Buy BuyMaintainJul 30, 2026
Wells Fargo Overweight OverweightMaintainJul 11, 2025
JMP Securities Market Perform Market PerformMaintainJan 29, 2025
Piper Sandler Underweight UnderweightMaintainJul 8, 2022
Seaport Global Neutral NeutralMaintainDec 16, 2020
Buckingham Research Buy BuyMaintainJan 13, 2020
Buckingham Buy BuyMaintainJan 13, 2020
Bank of America Buy NeutralUpgradeJan 9, 2019
B of A Securities Buy NeutralUpgradeJan 9, 2019
Sandler O'Neill Hold BuyDowngradeAug 18, 2016
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Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted current price $146.44. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Morgan StanleyRyan Kenny$165$125.22 +12.7%Oct 8, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$154$127.94 +5.2%Oct 7, 2026
BMO CapitalAnalyst unavailable$145$125.49 -1.0%Aug 3, 2026
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$177$125.59 +20.9%Jul 30, 2026
Goldman SachsAnalyst unavailable$148$139.08 +1.1%Jul 30, 2026
Goldman SachsAnalyst unavailable$164$136.44 +12.0%Jul 10, 2026
US Capital AdvisorsAnalyst unavailable$187$136.48 +27.7%Jul 9, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$161$136.1 +9.9%Jul 8, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$160$152.4 +9.3%May 7, 2026
Morgan StanleyRyan Kenny$193$150.12 +31.8%Apr 9, 2026
UBSMichael Brown$196$168.78 +33.8%Jan 30, 2026
BMO CapitalBrennan Hawken$211$180.53 +44.1%Jan 29, 2026
UBSMichael Brown$193$180.42 +31.8%Dec 11, 2025
Deutsche BankAnalyst unavailable$210$191.3 +43.4%Oct 9, 2025
Wells FargoMichael Brown$179$157.32 +22.2%Mar 11, 2025
Morgan StanleyRyan Kenny$163$160.3 +11.3%Sep 23, 2024
Piper SandlerJeffrey Harte$76$82.13 -48.1%Apr 11, 2022
Piper SandlerJeffrey Harte$92$90.72 -37.2%Mar 30, 2022
Piper SandlerJeffrey Harte$106$98.42 -27.6%Mar 16, 2022
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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Houlihan Lokey, Inc. is a prominent global investment banking firm offering a comprehensive suite of financial advisory services. These include expertise in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital markets, financial restructuring, and valuation. The company's operations are divided into three core segments: The Corporate Finance division provides broad financial guidance. It assists both public and private entities with strategic buy-side and sell-side transactions and a variety of capital-raising activities, such as leveraged loans, private mezzanine debt, high-yield debt, initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on offerings, convertibles, equity private placements, and private equity investments. This segment also advises financial sponsors on diverse deal structures and liability management initiatives. The Financial Restructuring segment guides debtors, creditors, and other involved parties through complex recapitalization and deleveraging processes.…

Historical context

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:12.209961+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-11-03T02:40:46.298944+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-11-03T02:40:46.295831+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-11-03. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.