Morgan Stanley’s earnings top Wall Street expectations, helped by record wealth management revenue

Morgan Stanley reported fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday that exceeded Wall Street expectations, boosted by the bank’s record revenues from wealth management.

Shares of the firm rose more than 1% in premarket trading following the results.

Here’s what the bank did:

• Earnings: $1.31 a share, adjusted
• Revenue: $12.75 billion, versus $12.64 billion, according to Refinitiv

In the fourth quarter, Morgan Stanley’s net income fell to $2.11 billion, or $1.26 per share, from $3.59 billion, or $2.01 per share, a year ago. After adjustments, Morgan Stanley said it earned $1.31 per share.

The company’s wealth management posted record net revenues of $6.63 billion in the latest quarter, 6% higher than a year ago. The result was helped by an increase in net interest income on higher interest rates and bank lending growth, the bank said.

“We reported solid fourth quarter results amidst a difficult market environment,” Chairman and CEO James Gorman said in a statement. “Overall, 2022 was a strong year for the Firm as our clear strategy and balanced business model enabled us to deliver an ROTCE of 16% despite the complex macro backdrop.”

The firm’s investment banking suffered a big slowdown amid a collapse in IPOs and debt and equity issuance. Revenues from investment banking came to $1.25 billion in the fourth quarter, down 49% from a year ago. The bank said the decline was due to the substantial decline in global equity underwriting volumes and lower completed M&A transactions.

Morgan Stanley’s investment management reported a revenue of $1.46 billion, marking a 15% decline from a year ago amid the extreme market volatility brought on by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes. The bank’s assets under management shrank to $1.30 trillion from $1.57 trillion last year.

In the latest period, the bank set aside $85 million for credit losses, compared to just $5 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The New York-based firm cut about 2% of its staff in December, which impacted about 1,600 of the company’s 81,567 employees and touched nearly every corner of the global investment bank.

Shares of Morgan Stanley have climbed nearly 8% year to date following a 13% pullback last year.