Morgan Stanley (MS) reported its second-quarter earnings results early Thursday, beating analysts' expectations.
Net income attributable to common shareholders was $802 million, or $0.41 per share, vs. $564 million, or $0.29 per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding special items, Morgan Stanley earned $0.45 per share, which topped Wall Street expectations of $0.43 cents. The Q2'13 results included a gain related to the bank's debt valuation and a charge tied to its purchase of Citigroup's remaining share of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney joint venture.
Total revenue jumped 22% from last year and 4% from the previous quarter to $8.5 billion, while expenses increased roughly 12% year over year and 2% quarter over quarter to $6.73 billion.
"This quarter, we saw significant year-over-year revenue growth in each of our five major business units and higher year-over-year profitability," said Chairman and CEO James P. Gorman (left), in a press release. "Of particular note, equity sales and trading results were strong across all products and regions … In addition, we look forward to the full benefits of the recently completed Wealth Management acquisition. We continue to work as one firm to realize the advantages specific to our business model."
Wealth Management
The Wealth Management unit had net revenues of $3.5 billion, up 10% from last year and 2% from a year ago. The group's pretax margin was roughly 19%, up from 17% in Q1'13 and 13% in Q2'12. Net income was $326 million, representing a jump of 41% over the year-ago period and an increase of 28% from the prior quarter.
