What to Expect When Morgan Stanley Reports Thursday Morning

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 30, 6:28PM EST · Published Jul 17, 1:35PM EDT

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What to Expect When Morgan Stanley Reports Thursday Morning — © Marieke Feenstra / Shutterstock.com

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS | MS Price Prediction) is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results before the markets on Thursday. The consensus estimates are calling for $1.14 in earnings per share (EPS) and $9.99 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.30 in EPS and $10.61 billion in revenue.

Morgan Stanley is one of the top 10 banks repurchasing $125 billion over the next year. This investment house received no objection to its 2019 capital plan, which includes the repurchase of up to $6.0 billion of outstanding common shares for the four-quarter period, an increase from $4.7 billion for the comparable similar period in the 2018 capital plan. Morgan Stanley also will raise its quarterly common stock dividend to $0.35 per share from the current $0.30.

In the first quarter, Morgan Stanley reported that its book value per common share totaled $42.83 while tangible book value per common share was $37.62. The common equity tier 1 capital ratio was 16.5% for the quarter.

At the same time, the firm reported its business segments as follows:

Institutional Securities net revenues dropped to $5.20 billion from $6.10 billion year over year.
Wealth Management net revenues increased slightly to $4.39 billion from $4.37 billion.
Investment Management revenues increased to $804 million from $718 million.

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Excluding Wednesday’s move, Morgan Stanley had underperformed the broad markets, with the stock up about 12% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually down about 8%.

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

Citigroup has a Buy rating and a $52 price target.
RBC has a Buy rating with a $60 price target.
BMO Capital Markets rates it as Outperform with a $68 target.
Wells Fargo has a Buy rating.

Shares of Morgan Stanley traded down about 1% at $43.95 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $36.74 to $51.53. The consensus price target is $53.62.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.