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Text: I'm Patrick Suehnholz, Greenhill's head of investor relations.
Joining me on the call today is Scott Bok, our chairman and chief executive officer.
These statements are based on our current expectations regarding future events that, by their nature, are outside of the firm's control and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions.
For a discussion of some of the risks and factors that could affect the firm's future results, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.
We reported fourth-quarter revenue of $106.7 million, an operating margin of 39% and net income of $1.05 per share.
For the full year, we had revenue of $301 million, an operating margin of 15% and net income of $0.45 per share.
Our quarterly revenue was up 20%, and earnings per share was up 133% from the same period last year.
For the full year, our revenue was down 14%, and earnings per share was down 68%.
In sum, we had a strong finish to the year, resulting in respectable full-year results on the top and bottom line, all consistent with our commentary on the past couple of quarterly investor calls.
While industry data shows a decline in global transaction activity versus the prior year, and almost all of our competitors have reported declines in advisory revenue, the primary driver in our reduced revenue for the year was that lower revenue in Europe more than offset increases in revenue in North America, Australia and the rest of the world.
By type of advice, we benefited from significant improvement in restructuring advisory revenue relative to recent years as our recently enlarged team gained increasing traction throughout the year.
Our capital advisory team had another strong performance though fell short of the prior year's record revenue level.
And in M&A, results were relatively strong nearly everywhere other than in Europe.
By industry sector, we had good results in consumer products, financial services and media, offset by weaker results in energy, healthcare and technology.
With respect to costs, our compensation ratio for the year was 59%, slightly above our target level as a result of lower revenue for the year.
For the quarter, the compensation ratio was an unusually low 42% in order to offset unusually high ratios in the first two quarters of the year.
Our management objective, as always, is to achieve a reasonable compensation ratio on a full-year basis while also ensuring that our team is appropriately compensated at competitive levels relative to their individual performance.
Our non-compensation operating expenses for the quarter were $21 million, which was $3.7 million higher than the same period last year due to some foreign currency-related losses compared to gains the prior year along with a charge for an uncollectible account receivable from a client in financial difficulty.
For the year, our non-compensation operating costs were very similar to last year as the above-mentioned unusual costs were in aggregate about the same size of the unusual cost the prior year when we incurred an accounting charge related to the earnout on our acquisition of Cogent.
We continue to monitor non-compensation expenses closely and are hopeful to achieve a lower annual level in dollar terms in 2020.
Our interest expense for the quarter was somewhat lower than for the same period last year as the incremental cost of an increased level of borrowing was more than offset by the impact of lower market interest rate and a lower coupon premium on our debt following our favorable refinancing early in 2019.
We expect our interest expense to continue to decline going forward.
Our effective tax rate was 33% for the quarter and 40% for the year.
Our tax rates for both periods were negatively impacted by the fact that we had a significantly lower than typical portion of our revenue and profit in lower tax rate jurisdictions, particularly the U.K., and a higher than typical portion of our revenue and profit in higher tax jurisdictions, particularly Australia and Brazil.
Our rate for the year was also negatively impacted by an unfavorable difference between the grant price and market price on vesting restricted stock units.
We continue to expect a rate generally in the mid-20% range going forward.
In terms of capital returns, we've continued to aggressively repurchase shares given our view that the market is underestimating our earnings potential as well as the fact that our stock trades at a valuation multiple below that of our peers and far below its typical historic valuation multiple level.
During the quarter, we purchased 1.5 million shares and share equivalents at an average price of $15.98 per share.
For the full year, we purchased 3.8 million shares and share equivalents at an average price of $18.04 per share.
For 2020, our Board has authorized $60 million in purchases of shares and share equivalents, which compares to $69 million we spent for such purchases during 2019.
In the quarter to date, we have repurchased 345,723 shares of common stock at an average price of $16.47 per share for $5.7 million in total, meaning we have repurchase authority of $54.3 million left for the remainder of the year.
We also declared a quarterly dividend for the quarter of $0.05 per share.
We ended the year with cash of $114 million and debt of $365.6 million, meaning we had net debt of $251.6 million.
As of yesterday, our cash balance was up to $133.9 million despite the incremental share repurchases in January with the debt amount unchanged.
Our required principal payment obligations are modest until maturity of our debt in 2024.
But based on our business outlook, as described below, we are aiming for significant deleveraging during 2020 alongside the additional share repurchases referred to above.
We enter 2020 with a favorable outlook across all of our businesses.
The environment for M&A activity currently feels positive across the regions that performed well for us in 2019, and our current book of assignments in Europe indicates the potential for a very substantial rebound in revenue there this year.
In restructuring advisory, we ended 2019 with a much improved level of monthly retainer fees and a much larger backlog of assignments that should get to completion during 2020.
Recent tightening of credit availability and increasing cost for borrowers with weaker credit ratings should also be a positive factor for this business.
In capital advisory, the continued growth of pools of private equity capital and the increased market liquidity available to chief investment officers that are invested in those funds should result in a continuing favorable operating environment for that business as well.
I'll close with a few words on our strategy.
We remain focused on building a business with increasingly diversified revenue streams and greater aggregate revenue.
That was the purpose of our acquisition of capital advisory specialist Cogent Partners almost five years ago, that was the purpose of the recent expansion of our restructuring advisory team, that was the purpose of last year's expansion in Singapore and France, and that is the purpose of our continuing recruitment of M&A specialists across various industry sectors.
Recruiting will continue to be key to our growth plans as well the continued development of talent internally.
In the past year, we added a net five client-facing managing directors, such that we have 79 today, and we increased our total professional headcount by 11%.
We have all the tools needed to continue to successfully implement our strategy.
Our culture makes our firm a great place to work, leading to both recruiting success and very high retention rates for strong performers.
Our brand for high-quality and independent advice has been built over decades of client service, and our team collectively owns 48% of the economic value of our firm through common stock and restricted stock and is, thereby, highly incentivized to generate strong results and create value for all shareholders.
Now I'm happy to take any questions.

user
compname reports q4 earnings per share of $1.05.
compname reports fourth quarter earnings per share of $1.05 and full year earnings per share of $0.45.
q4 revenue $106.7 million versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $86.9 million.
board authorized up to $60 million of purchases of shares and share equivalents in 2020.
qtrly earnings per share $1.05.

assistant