Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Q3 earnings-per-share beat was driven by “solid” wealth management results together with “sizable uplift” from beats across results in investment banking and trading, Oppenheimer said in a note Thursday. Oppenheimer also said total revenue exceeded expectations, driven by investment banking and trading. “Overall, we see Q3 as continued evidence of MS executing well, which we view as largely priced into the current valuation,” Oppenheimer said. Oppenheimer said that for 2025, it is boosting its EPS forecast for Morgan Stanley by about 2.4% mainly because of the flow-through effect of a higher base of trading expected in 2024 as well as wealth management assets under management and revenue. Oppenheimer has a perform rating on Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley has been a premium stock among its peers in recent years, with shareholders benefiting from its combination of investment banking and wealth management. However, the stock’s outperformance could be coming to an end, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. Morgan Stanley shares were down 2.1% at $94.56 in morning trading Wednesday after a Goldman Sachs team led by analyst Richard Ramsden downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy. That leaves them a little more than 10% below the record high they hit this summer. Ramsden lowered his 12-month price target on Morgan Stanley stock to $105 from $122. “MS has a best-in-class investment bank, which has taken notable share over the past decade, and a leading wealth management platform, both of which have contributed to strong return improvement,” Ramsden wrote in a research note. “However, as we move further into the investment banking cycle, we see other names as

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: MS stands to significantly benefit from the early stage recovery in investment banking and asset management. We lift our target $11 to $108 on a forward P/E of 15.2x, above the 13.6x three-year historic average. We raise our ’24 EPS to $7.10 ($6.60) and ’25’s to $7.75 ($7.20). Our investment thesis is underwriting and advisory (M&A) fees could benefit with CEOs renewing capital formation, and ALT firms later this year needing to monetize from $1T+ investment funds to satisfy limited partners. Our revenue forecast is $59.8B in ’24 and $63.0B in ’25. MS posted Q1 EPS of $2.02, a $0.37 earnings beat. In Institutional Securities, MS realized +113% Y/Y growth in equity underwriting and debt underwriting was +37%. While M&A was -28%, we are confident that will

The following is a summary of the Morgan Stanley (MS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: In Q1 2024, Morgan Stanley reported revenue of $15 billion, yielding earnings per share of $2.02 with an efficiency ratio of 71%. Wealth Management and Institutional Securities revenues stood at $6.9 billion and $7 billion respectively. Investment banking revenues rose 16% from last year, reaching $1.4 billion for the quarter. Net new asset growth rose by $95 billion. The CET1 ratio decreased by 0.14% from the previous quarter to 15.1%. The company repurchased $1 billion of common stock during Q1. Business Progress: Growth in client assets, totaling $7 trillion, indicates strong momentum across Wealth and Investment Management. The company is increasing its investment in cloud infrastructure to support growth and the development of its AI platform. Strategic hires are being made in M&A and technology is being upgraded to improve client services. A

Morgan Stanley First Quarter 2024 Earnings Results Morgan Stanley Reports Net Revenues of $15.1 Billion, EPS of $2.02 and ROTCE of 19.7% April 16, 2024– Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today reported net revenues of $15.1 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024 compared with $14.5 billion a year ago. Net income applicable to Morgan Stanley was $3.4 billion, or $2.02 per diluted share,(1) compared with net income of $3.0 billion, or $1.70 per diluted share,(1) for the same period a year ago. Ted Pick, Chief Executive Officer, said, “In the first quarter of 2024 Morgan Stanley generated net revenues of $15 billion and earnings of $2.02 per share for a 20% return on tangible equity. As a result of strong net new asset growth, the Firm has reached $7 trillion of client assets across Wealth and Investment Management. Institutional Securities also saw strength across the markets and underwriting

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Stock Analyst Ratings Date Upside/Downside Analyst Firm Price Target Change Rating Change Previous / Current Rating 04/09/2024 — JMP Securities Reiterates → Market Perform 04/05/2024 0.13% Keefe, Bruyette & Woods $91 → $94 Maintains Market Perform 04/04/2024 8.66% Evercore ISI Group $97 → $102 Maintains Outperform 03/28/2024 6.52% HSBC $96 → $100 Maintains Hold 03/27/2024 -3.06% RBC Capital → $91 Reiterates Sector Perform → Sector Perform 03/19/2024 3.33% Oppenheimer $109 → $97 Maintains Outperform 01/30/2024 16.11% Oppenheimer $106 → $109 Maintains Outperform 01/17/2024 12.92% Oppenheimer $107 → $106 Maintains Outperform 01/17/2024 13.98% BMO Capital $106 → $107 Maintains Outperform 01/17/2024 -3.06% Keefe, Bruyette & Woods $102 → $91 Downgrades Outperform → Market Perform 01/17/2024 -7.32% JP Morgan $94 → $87 Downgrades Overweight → Neutral 01/09/2024 1.2% UBS $80 → $95 Maintains Neutral 01/09/2024 0.13% JP Morgan $92 → $94 Maintains Overweight 01/09/2024 2.26% HSBC → $96 Downgrades

Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski maintains Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) with a Outperform and lowers the price target from $109 to $97.

With rate cuts coming, attention will turn to central bank balance sheets, said Morgan Stanley. The bank laid out in a note where the balance sheets are now and where they are going. Market attention on central bank balance sheets will likely increase this year, including the composition of balance sheets and the form of quantitative tightening (QT), stated Morgan Stanley. For example, the United States Federal Reserve, the Euroepan Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will have very different paths forward. While balance sheets may or may not revert to pre-COVID levels, the bank thought they will certainly not revert to pre-GFC (global financial crisis) norms. Morgan Stanley draws four lessons from the cross-country comparison: — QT isn’t the opposite of quantitive easing (QE). QE took place amid market disruptions and widespread slumps in growth; QT is happening with healed markets, amid growth and inflation. With

By Andrew Welsch Morgan Stanley’s wealth unit fell short of its target for pretax profit margin in the fourth quarter, but the goal is still achievable and the company has a plan to hit its target, said Jed Finn, head of wealth management at Morgan Stanley. “We can add significantly more clients and assets without having to add significantly more to the infrastructure,” said Finn, who spoke at the BofA Securities Financial Services Conference on Thursday. Morgan Stanley has finished integrating recent acquisitions, which frees up resources, Finn said. It now has a robust platform for serving a wide range of clients and customer needs. Plus, it has a pipeline of future full-service wealth management clients. “Once the relationships are here, they grow over time,” he said. “It might start in a brokerage account, but it then grows into an advisory relationship. Or maybe it starts with a checking account.

Morgan Stanley plans to cut several hundred jobs in its wealth-management division as new Chief Executive Ted Pick seeks to rein in costs in an area that is critical to the Wall Street firm’s success but has shown signs of weakening lately. The cuts, which include a small number of managing directors as well as non-customer-facing employees, are expected to hit less than 1% of the wealth unit’s employees, which number less than 40,000 in total. Affected employees are expected to be notified as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The layoffs represent one of the first major moves under Pick, who took over as CEO from longtime Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman on Jan. 1. Wealth management has become a major driver of revenue and profit at Morgan Stanley following a string of big acquisitions. Morgan Stanley last year finished integrating E*Trade, which it