What to Watch For in Morgan Stanley's Q3

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: October 15, 2018 12:15 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:25 pm

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is scheduled to report its most recent quarterly results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters are $1.02 in earnings per share (EPS) and $9.56 billion in revenue for the third quarter. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.93 on $9.2 billion in revenue.

In the first quarter, Morgan Stanley reported a record profit, helped by a lower tax bill and a boost in revenue from the previous quarter’s volatile markets. The second quarter also posted solid numbers as well. Despite this, the stock has still managed to lag in 2018.

James P. Gorman, board chair and chief executive, commented in the previous report:

We reported robust revenue and earnings growth this quarter with strength across all businesses and geographies. The second quarter performance reflected active markets and healthy client engagement. Our strong global franchise positions us well to continue to grow organically across each of our businesses and to deliver operating leverage.

Morgan Stanley has underperformed the broad markets, with its stock down about 10% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock is down 17%.

A few analysts weighed in on Morgan Stanley ahead of the report:

HSBC has a Hold rating and a $54 price target.
Wolfe Research has an Outperform rating.
JPMorgan has a Buy rating with a $62 price target.
Citigroup has a Neutral rating and a $56 price target.
Goldman Sachs has a Neutral rating with a $59 target.

Shares of Morgan Stanley were last seen trading at $43.60, in a 52-week range of $42.88 to $59.38 and with a consensus analyst price target of $59.02.

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