For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Morgan Stanley (MS) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MS for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Morgan Stanley's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Morgan Stanley's main business drivers.
Founded in 1935 and incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in 1981, Morgan Stanley is the leading financial services holding company headquartered in New York. With 80,393 employees, the company serves a diversified group of clients and customers — including corporations, governments, financial institutions and individuals — through offices across 41 countries.
The company’s business is divided into three segments:
The Institutional Securities ("IS") segment (contributing 45.5% of total net revenues in 2024) includes capital raising; financial advisory services that include advices on mergers and acquisitions (M&As), restructurings, real estate and project finance; corporate lending; sales, trading, financing and market-making activities in equity and fixed income securities and related products, including foreign exchange and commodities; benchmark indices and risk management analytics; and investment activities.
The Wealth Management ("WM") segment (46%) provides brokerage and investment advisory services covering various investment alternatives; financial and wealth planning services; annuity and other insurance products; credit and other lending products; cash management services; retirement services; and trust and fiduciary services and engages in fixed income principal trading.
The Investment Management ("IM") segment (8.5%) provides global asset management products and services in equity, fixed income, alternative investments that include hedge funds and funds of funds, and merchant banking including real estate, private equity and infrastructure, to institutional and retail clients through proprietary and third-party distribution channels. The segment also engages in investment.
In 2019, Morgan Stanley acquired Canada-based Solium Capital Inc. and renamed it as Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. In 2020, the company acquired E*Trade Financial. In 2021, it acquired Eaton Vance.
Bottom Line
Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Morgan Stanley, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in August 2015 would be worth $3,914.17, or a gain of 291.42%, as of August 14, 2025, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 210.39% and gold's return of 189.39% over the same time frame.
Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for MS.
Morgan Stanley's shares have outperformed the industry this year. Its second-quarter 2025 results reflected a solid trading business. Efforts to focus on wealth and asset management operations, inorganic expansion/strategic alliance and relatively high rates are expected to aid the top line. Despite near-term headwinds in the investment banking (IB) business, the company will benefit from a strong pipeline. We project IB fees and total revenues to grow 3.9% and 3.6%, respectively, in 2025. Operating expenses are likely to stay elevated due to business expansion efforts. We project total non-interest expenses to rise 7% this year. The ambiguity on the performance of capital markets is a key near-term concern for the company. Though trading revenues are expected to increase going forward, they are less likely to reach the 2021 level anytime soon.
Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 5.70%, and there have been 7 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2025 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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Morgan Stanley (MS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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