Not all boutiques are created equal. As the number of these niche investment banks proliferate, we'll start to see more performance differences. One recent winner seems to be Evercore Partners, which has advised AT&T in its deal with BellSouth and General Motors on the sale of GMAC and others. Its stock has fared well over the past few months. The problem is that even a strong deal environment may not support heady growth at all boutiques. At Evercore, more than half of revenue flow came from five clients over the past two years. Strong advisory work doesn't guarantee good results, however. Consider Greenhill & Co: It just missed estimates thanks to weaker merchant banking revenue.

For more on boutiques:
- Here's an article about Evercore from Investor's Business Daily 
- Here's an article about Greenhill & Co. from the AP