Investment Bank DLJ Plans Public Offering : Securities: Wall Street company is selling shares for a second time. Analysts say the timing is right.

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. disclosed plans Tuesday to go public for the second time in its 36-year history with an initial public offering that would infuse the Wall Street investment bank with needed financial capital.

The sale of up to 10.58 million common shares, combined with a stock exchange program with DLJ employees, could raise up to $385.7 million for the brokerage and its parent, Equitable Cos., according to documents filed with securities regulators.

Equitable, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, would sell a 20% stake in DLJ through the initial stock sale, returning the brokerage to public company status for the first time since 1985. The New York Stock Exchange offering is expected to be completed in October.

Equitable and DLJ did not give a price range for the sale. The stock price was proposed at $27 per share for the purposes of registering the stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The price could change as the public sale approaches. DLJ also said it plans to sell an unspecified amount of notes for general corporate purchases, such as repayment of outstanding debts.

New York-based DLJ first went public in 1970, selling 800,000 shares at $15 apiece to raise $12 million. The firm essentially went private again in 1985 when Equitable bought it and its money-management subsidiary, Alliance Capital, for $460 million.

Equitable had tried to sell DLJ last spring but shelved those plans because of regulatory concerns.

DLJ’s second public debut marks the first time a major brokerage firm has sold stock since Charles Schwab & Co.’s share sale in September, 1987, just before the stock market crashed, said Perrin Long, a securities industry analyst with Brown Bros. Harriman & Co.

The timing for DLJ is considered good. Adding allure to the stock sale is a market rally this year that has many investors eager to buy new share offerings. The demand has enabled many companies to get unexpectedly high prices for new stock.

“This is a good time to go public. The brokerage stocks are selling at the upper end of their price-to-book values,” Long said.