Morgan Stanley reported worse than expected fourth quarter earnings before the bell Thursday. $MS followed the other major banks; Bank of America $BAC JPMorgan Chase $JPM, Wells Fargo $WFC, PNC Financial $PNC Goldman Sachs and Citigroup $C reporting
Morgan Stanley reported worse than expected fourth quarter earnings before the bell Thursday. $MS followed the other major banks; Bank of America $BAC JPMorgan Chase $JPM, Wells Fargo $WFC, PNC Financial $PNC Goldman Sachs and Citigroup $C reporting
Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS Report Beat Before Open Thursday
$0.91 on $9.35 Billion Forecast in Revenue
Earnings
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported 4Q EPS of 80 cents on revenue of $8.55 billion.missing expected EPS estimate of 91c (range 76c to $1.07) on 4Q net revenue of est. $9.35b (range $8.97b to $10.17b). Estimated 4Q total trading revenue est. $2.82b with equities $2.01b, FICC $822.5m and I-banking rev. est. $1.35. Morgan Stanley had been impressive with it’s market share gains but now analyst will look for more efficiency.
Analysts have cut estimates for Goldman, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo & Co. by an average of 8.1 percent since the last quarter’s earnings reports. Goldman has seen estimates slashed by 27 percent
Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS
Market Reaction > Pre-market $41.87 USD −2.62 (-5.89%)
Highlights
- Fixed income trading revenue sank 30% to $564 million
- Equity trading revenue was flat at $1.9 billion.
- Investment banking revenue was flat at $1.4 billion.
- Wealth management revenue fell 6% to $4.14 billion.
- Investment management revenue grew 7% to $684 million.
- In the three-month period, Morgan Stanley recorded an intermittent net discrete tax benefit of $111 million or $0.07 per diluted share, regarding the resolution of multi-jurisdiction tax examinations. While in the same period a year ago, an intermittent net discrete tax provision of $1.0 billion or a loss of $0.58 per diluted share affected the results due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
- Compensation expense was $3.8 billion for the quarter, down from $4.3 billion a year ago on lower net revenues.
- Non-compensation expenses were $2.9 billion, up from $2.8 billion a year ago.
- The annualized return on average common equity was 7.7% and the annualized return on average tangible common equity was 8.8% in the current quarter.
Morgan Stanley attributed the weak trading results to market volatility and the drop in wealth management, which had been a strong segment, to a “difficult environment, seasonality and certain compensation-related items.”
“In 2018 we achieved record revenues and earnings, and growth across each of our business segments – despite a challenging fourth quarter,” said Chairman and CEO James Gorman.
Morgan Stanley Q3 Earnings Recap
$1.17 Beat $1.02 EPS AND $9.872 Beat $9.65 Billion Forecast in Revenue
Earnings
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported earnings at $1.17 per share with revenue climbing to $9.872 billion. Investment banking revenue was better than expected. The results best analyst estimates for $1.02 in EPS on revenue of $9.56 billion. Shares of Morgan Stanley have a 52-week trading range is $42.88 to $59.38.
Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS
Market Reaction > Pre-market 44.93 +1.46 (+3.36%)
Highlights
- Compensation expense rose to $4.3 billion from $4.2 billion from a year ago on higher revenues
- Non-compensation expenses improved to $2.7 billion rose from $2.5 billion due to higher volume driven expenses and investments in technology partly offset by lower litigation costs.
- MS’s expense efficiency ratio was only 71% compared with last year’s 73%.
- The annualized return on average common equity was 11.5%, while annualized return on average tangible common equity was 13.2% for the current quarter.
Source: MS, AlphaStreet
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