Coming out of the financial crisis, Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley made a crucial pivot that is bearing fruit as the bank gets further away from its darkest days and helped deliver first-quarter results that blew past Wall Street's estimates.
The firm's decision to double down on wealth management — buying Smith Barney from Citigroup Citigroup — has paid off, most recently in the first quarter when the segment accounted for $3.6 billion of Morgan Stanley's $8.8 billion in net revenue.
Overall, revenue was up 3.5% from a year earlier and excluding an accounting adjustment related to debt valuation, income from continuing operations came in at $1.4 billion or 68 cents per share, ahead of the consensus estimate of 61 cents according to FactSet.
Chairman and CEO James Gorman touted improved revenues in each of the firm's three business segments and said the firm continues to "execute on our multi-year strategy to deliver consistent returns for our shareholders through revenue growth and strong expense discipline." He also touted Morgan Stanley's plan to repurchase another $1 billion of its shares and double its dividend, after winning Federal Reserve approval for its capital plan last month.
No comments:
Post a Comment