Morgan Stanley bankers cashed in on last quarter's hectic period for dealmaking, helping the firm post its second-most profitable quarter on record and weather a steep decline in trading.
Investment banking hauled in $2.38 billion in revenue, according to a statement Thursday, vaulting past analysts' estimates of $2.08 billion. Fixed-income trading revenue tumbled 45% from last year's pandemic-driven surge.
Morgan Stanley's results echo an investment-banking bonanza reported by rivals including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. earlier this week.
The firms capitalized as corporations looking for merger-and-acquisition opportunities sought out advice from Wall Street. Investment banking has been a wild card for Morgan Stanley's earnings, a contrast to the steady growth engine of the firm's wealth-management operation.
"We had another strong quarter and we are firing on all cylinders," Chief Financial Officer Sharon Yeshaya said in an interview. "The fixed-income decline was in line with peers, investment-banking pipelines are strong. We had record revenue in wealth management" and a profit margin of almost 28%.
Morgan Stanley was little changed at $92.38 at 9:51 a.m. in New York trading. The stock has surged 35% this year as the bank doubled its quarterly dividend and announced as much as $12 billion in stock buybacks after comfortably clearing the Federal Reserve's annual stress tests.
Gorman's Plans
Chief Executive Officer James Gorman unveiled his biggest leadership shakeup in more than a decade during the second quarter, positioning four men as his most likely successors.
Prominent among them were Ted Pick, the architect of Morgan Stanley's trading revival in recent years, and Andy Saperstein, who built the company into a wealth-management powerhouse. Pick and Saperstein were tapped as co-presidents.
Yeshaya on Thursday will make her debut presentation to Wall Street analysts on the firm's performance and outlook.
