Morgan Stanley beats estimates

Morgan Stanley reported a stronger first quarter on April 15, with profit and revenue both topping Wall Street estimates. (morganstanley.com) (reuters.com) Net income rose to $5.57 billion, or $3.43 a share, from $4.32 billion, or $2.60 a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed to $20.58 billion from $17.74 billion in the quarter ended March 31. (morganstanley.com) Analysts polled by London Stock Exchange Group had expected earnings of about $3.00 a share, and Morgan Stanley came in above that mark. Shares gained about 3% in premarket trading after the results. (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) The biggest engine was the institutional securities division, where revenue reached a record $10.72 billion. Investment banking revenue rose 36% to $2.12 billion, equity trading jumped 25% to a record $5.15 billion, and fixed-income trading increased 29% to $3.36 billion. (morganstanley.com) (cnbc.com) Those numbers add to evidence that the deal slump that weighed on Wall Street through much of 2024 and 2025 has started to ease. Morgan Stanley said advisory fees helped lead the investment-banking increase, while trading desks benefited from heavier client activity and market volatility. (reuters.com) (morganstanley.com) The wealth business, which Morgan Stanley has spent years building into a steadier source of fees, also posted record revenue of $8.52 billion. The unit gathered $118.4 billion in net new assets in the quarter, up from $93.8 billion a year earlier. (morganstanley.com) That mix matters because Morgan Stanley now leans on two businesses at once: trading and dealmaking when markets are busy, and wealth management when clients keep adding assets. Chief Executive Ted Pick said the quarter showed “strong execution” across the firm’s integrated model. (morganstanley.com) One business lagged. Investment management revenue slipped to $1.54 billion from $1.60 billion, which Morgan Stanley tied mainly to lower carried interest on private funds. (morganstanley.com) (cnbc.com) The bank also reported a standardized common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 15.1% and a return on tangible common equity of 27.1%, both closely watched measures of capital strength and profitability. For now, the quarter gave Morgan Stanley a clean start to the year and raised the bar for the rest of the big-bank earnings season. (morganstanley.com)