UPDATE 2-Evercore Partners Q3 tops estimates; to hire more
* Q3 EPS $0.29 vs est $0.22
* Advisory revenue up 42 pct
* Raises dividend by 25 pct to $0.15
* Says to hire more, looks at growth through acquisitions
* Shares up 2 pct (Recasts, adds comments from conference call, updates share movement)
Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.S. merger advisory boutique Evercore Partners Inc (EVR.N) reported a quarterly profit above analysts average estimate, helped by strong revenue from its advisory business, and increased its quarterly dividend by 25 percent.
On a conference call with analysts, company executives said Evercore will continue to hire and look at growth through acquisitions.
Evercore, whose shares were up as much as 6 percent in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, has been increasing headcount by adding bankers from large institutions, where writedowns on credit losses led to cash injections by the U.S. government and restrictions on pay.
For the third quarter, the company's advisory results were balanced between mergers and acquisition and restructuring assignments, reflecting early stages of recovery of the M&A markets, Chief Executive Ralph Schlosstein said in a statement.
The company, which advises on large mergers and acquisitions, posted a third-quarter net income available to common shareholders of $11 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with $2.3 million, or 7 cents a share, a year-ago.
Net revenue rose 49 percent to $83.4 million.
Evercore, which is advising CIT Group Inc (CIT.N) in its restructuring efforts, said advisory revenue rose 42 percent to $71.6 million.
Investment management business reported $10 million of fee-based revenue, Evercore said.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 22 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $74.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 a share from $0.12 a share.
Shares of the New York-based company were trading up 2 percent at $31.92 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Archana Shankar and Sweta Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Pradeep Kurup)
