Key Takeaways
- Morgan Stanley posted second quarter earnings per share of $1.82 on revenue of $15.02 billion, beating analysts’ expectations.
- Wealth management revenue growth was relatively modest, while net new assets were down year-over-year.
- Other big banks have also managed to beat top- and bottom-line expectations this quarter.
Morgan Stanley (MS) posted strong second-quarter top- and bottom-line results despite sluggish growth in the bank’s wealth-management business Tuesday.
The bank reported second-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $1.82 on revenue of $15.02 billion, topping analysts’ expectations of $1.64 per share and $14.26 billion, respectively, per consensus compiled by Visible Alpha. Revenue rose 12% year-over-year.
Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division posted a 2% increase in revenue year-over-year to $6.79 billion. The bank added $36.4 billion in net new assets, well below the $89.5 billion added in the year-ago quarter.
The shares gained in recent trading, with Morgan Stanley stock up nearly 3%. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index (BKX) was up about 2.6%.
Revenue from equity trading jumped 18% to $3.02 billion. Fixed-income revenue rose 16% to $1.99 billion and investment-banking revenue rocketed 51% to $1.62 billion.
Morgan Stanley is the latest big bank to beat expectations on both profit and revenue, joining Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Goldman Sachs (GS).