Newmark's push to poach top brokers paid dividends at the end of last year as the New York-based commercial real estate firm outperformed expectations for revenue and earnings growth.

Newmark hit $888M in revenue in the fourth quarter, up 19% year-over-year, and posted $65.7M in net income, a 24% jump. Its revenue and earnings per share both beat Wall Street estimates, and the brokerage's stock was up roughly 8% as of mid-afternoon Friday.

“Our pipeline across all major business lines remains robust,” Newmark CEO Barry Gosin said on a call with analysts Friday morning. “We expect momentum throughout the year.”

Newmark posted some of its strongest quarterly earnings on record, boosted by capital markets deals that centered on industrial assets and the data center boom. Executives said on the call they expect momentum in that space, and the capital markets in general, to continue. The company expects to grow its earnings by 40% by the end of 2026, Chief Financial Officer Michael Rispoli said.

Newmark closed almost $17B in data center deals last year and expects to do more in 2025 thanks to a combination of reshoring, the CHIPS Act and the federal government’s investment in infrastructure, Gosin said. The company advised on a $2.3B loan to finance a Texas data center that will be part of the Stargate project from OpenAI and supported by President Donald Trump.

When asked by analysts about whether the demand for data centers was a moment of euphoria for the industry and potentially overhyped, a concern following the reveal of DeepSeek's AI platform earlier this year, Gosin doubled down.

“If you believe in AI, you believe in advanced manufacturing, you believe in semiconductors, you believe in robotics, you believe in America, you should believe in the reality of this vertical,” he said.

The firm's capital markets volume grew by 20% year-over-year, but it noted in its earnings release that a year ago, it advised on the $40B sale of Signature Bank’s loans after the bank failed. Taking out that deal, capital markets volume would have more than doubled.

Its industrial and hospitality capital markets volumes were triple their volume from the prior year. Leasing revenue also grew by 15%. The increase was due to “strong double-digit growth in office leasing,” per the brokerage’s report.

The company expects to see continued strength as workers return to office space while older buildings are converted to housing and hotels, Rispoli said. New industries, including within technology and cryptofinance, will add to demand created by financial services firms for office space.

“People are coming back to the office,” he said. “People realize that there is a productivity decline when people don't show up.”

Newmark’s hiring investment from earlier in the year was already demonstrating payoff by the end of 2024, Gosin said in a statement released with the company’s earnings. The company hired one of the top leasing brokers in Washington, D.C., this week.

“We continue to attract and retain the industry's top talent and are positioned for strong revenue and earnings growth in 2025,” Gosin said.

Hanging over Newmark's business is the fate of its executive chairman and controlling shareholder, Howard Lutnick. Lutnick is days from a confirmation vote to become Secretary of Commerce. He has agreed to sell his stake in Newmark within 90 days of taking office, and Rispoli confirmed Friday that sale wouldn't happen on the public market.

Newmark settled a shareholder lawsuit this week that allowed Lutnick to keep a $50M bonus and see Newmark get paid $50M from insurance.

“It has been a privilege partnering with Howard to build Newmark into a powerhouse,” Gosin said on the earnings call. “Howard has helped Newmark make bold and decisive decisions that have catapulted our company's growth in the United States and our expansion abroad.”

CORRECTION, FEB. 16, 8:40 P.M. ET: Newmark's capital markets volume grew by 20% year-over-year. A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed that growth to revenue. This story has been updated.