Morgan Stanley (MS) Q1 Earnings Report Preview: What To Look For

Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday before the bell. Here’s what investors should know.

Morgan Stanley beat analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $17.89 billion, up 10.3% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates and a narrow beat of analysts’ revenue estimates.

Is Morgan Stanley a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, the market is expecting Morgan Stanley’s revenue to grow 11.5% year on year, slowing from the 17.2% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Morgan Stanley has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations.

Looking at Morgan Stanley’s peers in the capital markets segment, some have already reported their Q1 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Goldman Sachs delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14.4%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1%, and Jefferies reported revenues up 26.6%, topping estimates by 1.4%. Jefferies traded up 1.6% following the results.

Read our full analysis of Goldman Sachs’s results here and Jefferies’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the capital markets segment, with share prices up 7.7% on average over the last month. Morgan Stanley is up 16.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $190.33 (compared to the current share price of $181.30).

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