Morgan Stanley reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings before the bell Thursday as rising markets helped the wealth and investment management business. $MS followed Bank of America $BAC JPMorgan Chase $JPM, Wells Fargo $WFC, PNC Financial $PNC Goldman Sachs and Citigroup $C reporting
Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS Reported Before Open Thursday
$1.23 Beat $1.14 AND $10.24B Beat $10.03 Billion Forecast in Revenue
Earnings
Morgan Stanley fourth-quarter earnings, on an adjusted basis, moved up to $1.20 per share from $0.73 per share in the corresponding period of last year and exceeded analysts’ forecasts. Net income, on a reported basis, was $2.24 billion or $1.30 per share, compared to $1.53 billion or $0.80 per share last year.
Unadjusted fourth-quarter profit surged 46% to $2.24 billion, or $1.30 a share, compared with analysts’ 99 cent estimate. Revenue rose 27% to $10.86 billion, exceeding the estimate by more than $1 billion, up from $8.55 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS
Market Reaction > Pre-market $56.99 +4.05 (+7.65%)
- Investment management produced $1.36 billion in revenue, almost 100% more than a year earlier and exceeding the $783.2 million estimate by more than half a billion dollars. Revenues at the Institutional Securities segment surged 32% to $5.1 billion, aided by an 11% growth in investment banking revenues.
- Wealth management revenues moved up 11% year-on-year to $4.58 billion, while Investment Management revenues nearly doubled to $1.36 billion.
“We delivered strong quarterly earnings across all of our businesses. Firmwide revenues were over $10 billion for the fourth consecutive quarter, resulting in record full-year revenues and net income. This consistent performance met all of our stated performance targets,” said CEO James Gorman.
The bank repurchased $1.5 billion of its stock during the quarter. The board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share, payable on February 14, 2020, to common shareholders of record on January 31, 2020.
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