Morgan Stanley Q3 2018 earnings: Stock surges as results beat estimates

It was a good earnings day for Morgan Stanley (MS) as the stock surged as the financial giant posted results beating Street expectations. This comes as a relief for Morgan Stanley after being battered Monday’s trading buoyed by fears of muted trading – with a whopping 256.15K shares changing hands in the last minute of trading, pushing the stock down to $43.47 at the close.

Morgan Stanley (MS) on Wednesday posted net revenues of $9.9 billion for the third quarter, up 7.6% from $9.2 billion a year ago. For the quarter, net income applicable to Morgan Stanley was $2.1 billion or $1.17 per diluted share, almost 17% higher than last year’s net income of $1.8 billion or $0.93 per diluted share. According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, Morgan Stanley was expected to record a profit of $1.02 a share on $9.56 billion in third-quarter revenue.

Compensation expense rose to $4.3 billion from $4.2 billion from a year ago on higher revenues, as non-compensation expenses improved to $2.7 billion rose from $2.5 billion due to higher volume driven expenses and investments in technology partly offset by lower litigation costs. The financial giant’s expense efficiency ratio for the current quarter, however was only 71% compared with last year’s 73%.

The annualized return on average common equity was 11.5%, while annualized return on average tangible common equity was 13.2% for the current quarter. Significant volatility and the bull market did play a part in the financial giant lifting itself up in the three months.

Rivals gain as well

Meanwhile, rival Goldman Sachs (GS) on Tuesday posted a 4% rise in net revenues to $8.6 billion for the same period, helped by investment banking and investment management. Net applicable earnings soared 21% to $2.45 billion while diluted earnings jumped 25% to $6.28 a share.

Buoyed by retail banking, JPMorgan tames interest rate woes in Q3

Commercial banking segment helped competitor and banking giant JPMorgan’s (JPM) in the third quarter, as the stock gained about 2% in premarket trading on Monday following the results. Net income surged to $8.4 billion or $2.34 share from last year’s $6.7 billion or $1.76 per share beating analysts’ earnings estimate of $2.25 a share.

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