Both stocks are back near the bottom of their 52-week ranges, and neither has regained its pre-talks price. Perella Weinberg ($PWP) closed at $13.23 on October 15, 2026, below the $14.64 it fetched before the talks were reported. Piper Sandler ($PIPR), the would-be buyer, closed at $64.57, still 9.9% below its $71.69 close of September 28. The deal is dead: the talks ended on October 14, according to the Financial Times via Investing.com, after too few Perella partners agreed to binding lock-up terms. We covered why Piper wanted the deal in our article on the strategic rationale. This follow-up does the arithmetic on the round trip, places both stocks against their peers, and lists what to watch next. All prices are from Financial Modeling Prep market data, October 15, 2026 close unless a source is linked.

The round trip in numbers

The talks were reported by the Wall Street Journal and covered on September 29, 2026, according to Pulse 2.0; they ended on October 14. Here is what each stock did across those dates.

The arithmetic, for anyone checking: 16.37 ÷ 14.64 = 1.118, a gain of 11.8%; 13.02 ÷ 16.10 = 0.809, a loss of 19.1%; 64.72 ÷ 71.69 = 0.903, a loss of 9.7%. Reuters reported the same October 14 closes: Perella "closed 19.1% lower at $13," while Piper "ended up 0.96% at $64.5."

So the target gave back more than its rumour gain, and the buyer never got its losses back. Both ended the episode almost exactly 10% lower than where they started, for opposite reasons.

The acquirer's verdict: Piper fell when the talks were reported

The most informative number in the table is Piper Sandler's −9.7% on September 29. When a buyer's shares fall on news that it is negotiating a purchase, the market is saying it expects the buyer to overpay, to issue too many shares, or to take on a risk it cannot price. Pulse 2.0 reported that Piper shares fell about 5% in the initial reaction; by the close the loss had nearly doubled.

In dollar terms, Financial Modeling Prep puts Piper's market value at about $4.56 billion at $64.57 a share, which implies roughly 70.7 million shares. A $6.97 drop (71.69 minus 64.72) on that share count is about $493 million of market value lost in one session. That is a rough figure, because the share count may have shifted slightly since September, but the order of magnitude is clear. Run the same sum for Perella (about 109.9 million implied shares times its $1.73 gain) and the target added roughly $190 million that day. The buyer lost more than twice what the target gained.

Notice also what did not happen when the talks died. If the market had simply disliked the deal, Piper should have bounced back toward $71 on October 14. It rose 1.0%. The market treated the deal's end as a small relief, not a reversal, which suggests some of the September 29 fall reflected a lasting reassessment of Piper itself. Investing.com noted the stock was already down roughly 25% for the year when the talks ended.

Where each stock sits now

• PWP at $13.23: 52-week range $12.515 to $25.93. That is 49.0% below the high and 5.7% above the low. It is 15.9% below its 50-day average ($15.74) and 25.5% below its 200-day average ($17.77). Market value about $1.45 billion.
• PIPR at $64.57: 52-week range $61.35 to $95.07. That is 32.1% below the high and 5.2% above the low. It is 10.5% below its 50-day average ($72.11) and 17.7% below its 200-day average ($78.42). Market value about $4.56 billion.

One caution on Perella's 50-day average: it includes the two weeks when the stock traded above $15 on deal hopes, so being below it is partly mechanical. A cleaner comparison is the September 15 close of $13.41, before any deal talk. On that basis Perella is down 1.3% for the month, essentially unchanged. Piper, by contrast, is down 11.5% from its September 15 close of $72.99.

How the advisory boutiques compare

Before concluding that either stock was singled out, look at the group. Every listed advisory boutique is well off its high.

Source: Financial Modeling Prep market data, October 15, 2026 close. "Below high" is 1 minus price divided by the 52-week high. The group sits 29% to 49% below its highs, and all seven trade below their 200-day averages. Piper's 32.1% is in the middle of the pack; Perella's 49.0% is the worst, and it is also the smallest firm by a wide margin. The sector-wide slide is the bigger force here. The failed deal explains Perella's last two weeks, not its last twelve months.

Dates ahead

• Piper Sandler: third-quarter 2026 results on Friday, October 30, 2026, with a conference call at 8:00 a.m. CT, according to the company's earnings page. This will be the first chance for management to address the talks on the record.
• Perella Weinberg: we could not verify a confirmed third-quarter date on the company's investor-relations site at the time of writing. Watch for its announcement rather than relying on estimates from third-party calendars.

A common mistake: calling it a "round trip" and moving on

The tempting reading is that Perella rose on the rumour, fell on the collapse, and is back where it started, so nothing has changed. The numbers say otherwise. Perella is below its pre-talks price, and it now carries a fact that was not public before: its partners would not commit to a combined firm. For Piper, the round trip never happened at all; it took the loss on the way in and did not recover it on the way out. Treat the episode as new information about both companies, not as noise that cancelled out.

A checklist of what to watch

• What Piper's management says on October 30 about acquisitions: whether it will keep pursuing advisory scale through purchases, and at what size. Our look at Piper Sandler's deal track record shows what it has bought before.
• Any disclosed senior-banker departures at Perella. The talks failed over retention; departures would confirm the risk.
• Whether Perella holds above its 52-week low of $12.515. It closed October 15 only 5.7% above it.
• Whether Piper's shares recover toward the $71.69 pre-talks level once the deal is off the table. If they do not, the September 29 drop was about Piper, not the deal.
• How both trade against the peer table above. Relative performance, not the absolute price, tells you whether the market still holds the episode against either one.

For the original report on the talks, see our September coverage of Perella Weinberg's surge. Follow the rest of the sector in the Markets section and on the front page. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.

FAQ

How much did PWP stock fall when the Piper Sandler talks ended?

It fell 19.1% on October 14, 2026, from $16.10 to $13.02, according to Financial Modeling Prep data; Reuters reported the same 19.1% close at $13.

Did Piper Sandler stock rise or fall on the deal news?

It fell 9.7% on September 29, 2026, the day the talks were reported, from $71.69 to $64.72. It rose 1.0% when the talks ended.

Are PWP and PIPR cheaper than their peers?

Perella is further below its 52-week high (49.0%) than any of the seven advisory boutiques in our table; Piper, at 32.1%, is mid-pack. Distance from a high is not a measure of value, only of how far a stock has fallen.

When does Piper Sandler report next?

Piper Sandler's earnings page lists third-quarter 2026 results on October 30, 2026, with an 8:00 a.m. CT call.