What Happened?
Shares of financial services firm Raymond James Financial (NYSE:RJF) fell 8.8% in the afternoon session after concerns grew that new artificial intelligence tools could disrupt the traditional financial advisory business.
The drop occurred after tech platform Altruist announced the launch of an AI-powered planning tool. This new capability allowed financial advisors to create personalized tax strategies for clients by analyzing documents within minutes. The news sparked a broader selloff among financial services stocks, including Charles Schwab and Stifel Financial, amid worries that AI could potentially replace human financial advisors and traditional brokerage services. The market's reaction highlighted growing anxiety about the future of established financial business models in the face of advancing technology.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Raymond James? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Raymond James’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 3 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 5 months ago when the stock dropped 3.3% on the news that the broader market slipped following the release of a jobs report that raised concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers added only 22,000 jobs in the last month, significantly missing the 75,000 that economists had anticipated. Additionally, the unemployment rate increased to 4.3%, its highest level since 2021. While the weaker-than-expected data strengthens the case for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, it also fueled investor fears of an economic slowdown. The negative sentiment impacted the wider market, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average also trading down during the session, indicating a broad-based sell-off rather than company-specific news.
Raymond James is down 3.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $158.01 per share, it is trading 10.4% below its 52-week high of $176.43 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Raymond James’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,103.
While Wall Street chases Nvidia at all-time highs, an under-the-radar semiconductor supplier is dominating a critical AI component these giants can’t build without. Click here to access our full research report, it’s free.