 beat its Wall Street competitors in the second quarter, reporting higher-than-expected revenues in both its equities trading and investment management divisions.){kind=link}
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) beat its Wall Street competitors in the second quarter, reporting higher-than-expected revenues in both its equities trading and investment management divisions.
The group saw its best performance in wealth management, recording $4.2 billion in revenues. This was above the $4.1 billion expected by analysts. Adjusted earnings per share also came in higher than estimate, at $0.87 in the three months to June.
Revenue from equities trading, an area in which its Wall Street competitors have suffered, was flat year-on-year at $2.2 billion. Investment management revenues stood at $665 million, higher than the $603 million previously expected.
“If you look at the revenue pools in fixed income, I think the decisions we made were the right ones,” Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pruzan said in an interview.
“We clearly think the strategy is working. We’re at just under 10 percent return on equity for the first half under two very different trading environments.”
Investors have been holding off on trading in the wake of Trump’s election, as his economic policy continues to remain uncertain. Pruzan said that “Investor psyche is pretty fragile”, adding that :”All of the uncertainties around the administration’s new policies that we saw emerging in the first quarter are still out there”.
Morgan Stanley’s net income jumped 11 percent to $1.76 billion, or 87 cents a share, from $1.58 billion, or 75 cents, a year earlier. Another key gauge of performance, ROE, rose to 9.1 percent from 8.3 percent a year earlier.
Shares in the bank climbed 4 percent in pre-morning trade.