StoneX Compounds: Physical, Prime, and Payments for a Record FY26

Net income up 102% in Q3 as RJO integration advances, Global Prime scales, and payments pivot to high-volume flows.

SNEX · Earnings Call · 2026-08-06

Another record, and this time it's broad

StoneX closed its fiscal third quarter with net income of $127.9 million, up 102% year over year, and diluted EPS of $1.00 (split-adjusted), an 85% increase. “This quarter was driven by strong performance across our Commercial and Institutional segments, which reported a 19% and 56% increase, respectively, in net operating revenue year-on-year” — Philip Smith, CEO · 2026-08-06. The numbers are especially notable because they follow a record Q2, and management explicitly flagged that volatility had moderated. The engine is diversification: listed derivatives, OTC, physical, and securities all grew double digits, with physical business up 162% and OTC up 73%.

The physical and OTC flywheel

The physical surge came from precious metals dislocations — as CEO Philip Smith explained, “driven by just dislocations in various markets between location A and location B” — Philip Smith, CEO · 2026-08-06. But it's also a deliberate ecosystem expansion. The OTC capability is now automated, with electronic swap matching and AI-accelerated platforms. What matters is the cross-sell: RJO clients, who historically only had listed futures, are now being offered physical hedging and OTC. “There are early success stories of where increased capability that we can provide from StoneX to R.J. O'Brien clients, who are now StoneX clients, is -- we've seen the benefit of it” — Philip Smith, CEO · 2026-08-06. Earlier, management had warned that revenue synergies would take time “takes a lot of education” — Sean O'Connor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) · 2025-11-25 — but the current quarter shows the flywheel starting to spin.

Global Prime: the ecosystem's connective tissue

The quarter's product spotlight was Global Prime, a prime brokerage that has grown 60%+ CAGR in seven years, from a standing start in 2018 to over 700 accounts and $16 billion in client balances.

...we now serve more than 700 accounts globally with over $16 billion in client balances on the platform, generating nearly $140 million in net operating revenue in the last 12 months.
Philip Smith, CEO · 2026-08-06

This is a Global Prime theme that is new for the company — it positions StoneX as a mid-market alternative to bulge-bracket prime brokers, adding repo, digital asset custody, and cross-product margining. It's also a natural nexus for client assets and interest income, reinforcing the ecosystem story.

Payments: the volume-versus-yield trade-off

Payments revenue rose 12% while average daily volume surged 20% to a record $96 million. Payment segment leadership explained that the strategic shift is toward high-volume, low-value payments, enabled by the X-Pay platform. “We continue to see a lot of large companies -- large payment companies, increasing number of banks who have this flow and are now actively directing it to StoneX...” — Philip Smith, CEO · 2026-08-06 This is a deliberate trade: higher volumes, lower revenue per million — but as CFO Bill Dunaway noted, "the volumes are growing quite fast, and it's nice to see rates per million are going up." The trend started with X-Pay's rollout, which expanded capacity 15-fold; prior commentary from Sean O'Connor highlighted that “we built our own in house system. It's called XPay.” — Sean O'Connor, CEO · 2025-05-08

Balance sheet and hedging

Client float grew 108% to $16.2 billion, largely on RJO, and StoneX added another $750 million in fixed-rate SOFR swaps, bringing its hedging position to $2.55 billion at an average rate of 3.51%. Management now estimates a 100bp rate move changes net income by $46.9 million. The funding base has expanded significantly — In the latest filed quarter, net income was $174 million; the current quarter adds another $127.9 million, and trailing-12-month net income is a record $526.9 million. The stock, however, has been in a drawdown — down ~50% from its June peak — even as results hit record levels. Revenue synergy from RJO is just beginning, and the client assets base now positions StoneX as the #1 nonbank FCM.

Why it matters

StoneX's story is evolving from a pure derivatives broker to a diversified mid-market financial services platform. The combination of physical, OTC, prime, and payments creates a moat that is hard to replicate, and the acquisitions appear to be compounding as hoped. With ROE above 20% on a trailing basis and a large TAM, the market might be slow to recognize the inflection — but the numbers speak for themselves.