Morgan Stanley posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue on Thursday that beat analyst expectations on strong results in wealth management.
Here’s how the banking giant fared against analyst estimates:
- EPS: 84 cents per share vs. 77 cents expected by Thomson Reuters
- Revenue: $9.5 billion vs. $9.2 billion expected
- Wealth management: $4.41 billion vs. $4.32 billion expected by StreetAccount
- Fixed income, commodities and currencies trading: $808 million vs. $1.05 billion expected
- Equities trading: $1.9 billion vs. $1.85 billion expected
Morgan Stanley’s bottom line excludes a one-time charge resulting from the recent changes to the U.S. tax code.
The company’s stock rose 1.9 percent in the premarket Thursday. Morgan Stanley shares are up 4.1 percent this year, slightly outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 3.9 percent.
But the bank said on Jan. 5 it would take a $1.25 billion hit in the fourth quarter because of the changes made to the U.S. tax code.
President Donald Trump signed a bill last month that slashed the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The changes are expected to be a long-term positive for companies, but some have taken one-time charges because of them. Some of these companies include Citigroup and Bank of America.
The bank’s results come a day after Goldman Sachs — another bank known for its trading business — reported a revenue decline of 50 percent in its fixed income, currencies and commodities trading business.
Goldman said trading is in a “challenging environment characterized by low levels of volatility and low client activity.”
