Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday morning. Here’s what to look for.
Morgan Stanley beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $21.35 billion, up 27.1% year on year. It was an incredible quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ Institutional Securities segment estimates and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates.
Is Morgan Stanley a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, the market is expecting Morgan Stanley’s revenue to grow 9.3% year on year, slowing from the 18.5% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. Morgan Stanley has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations.
Looking at Morgan Stanley’s peers in the capital markets segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Jefferies delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 8.5%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.1%, and FactSet reported revenues up 6.3%, topping estimates by 0.8%. Jefferies traded down 1.3% following the results while FactSet was up 6.8%.
Read our full analysis of Jefferies’s results here and FactSet’s results here.
Over the past year, investors have repeatedly shifted their focus from one macro narrative to another (AI disruption and AI capex spending to geopolitics, interest rates, and the broader health of the economy). While some of the capital markets stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 4.9% on average over the last month. Morgan Stanley is down 7.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $222.14 (compared to the current share price of $191.28).
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