Morgan Stanley’s (MS) third-quarter profits surged 83% driven by broad-based strength across trading, investment banking and wealth management. Per The Wall Street Journal:
For the quarter, Morgan Stanley reported a profit of $1.71 billion, compared with a year-earlier profit of $906 million. The quarter included a tax benefit of 12 cents a share. On a per-share basis, which reflects the payment of preferred dividends, Morgan Stanley’s profit was 84 cents, or 65 cents when stripping out accounting adjustments and the tax benefit. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected adjusted earnings of 54 cents a share.
“We think the Morgan Stanley story is playing out how owners would like,” said ISI analyst Glenn Schorr, noting that wealth and asset management made up roughly half of the firm’s revenue this quarter, expenses were in check and capital ratios are high.
