How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to 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 82,398 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 October 2015 would be worth $5,012.44, or a 401.24% gain, as of October 31, 2025, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 228.10% and gold's return of 238.64% over the same time frame.
Analysts are anticipating more upside for MS.
Morgan Stanley's shares have outperformed the industry in the past six months. Its third-quarter 2025 results were aided by a robust investment banking (“IB”) and trading performance. The company's efforts to focus on wealth and asset management operations, inorganic expansion initiatives, and strategic alliances will keep aiding the top line. The performance of the IB business is expected to be driven by a strong pipeline in the near term. However, expenses will remain elevated due to business expansion efforts. The uncertainty of the performance of the capital markets is a key near-term concern. While trading revenues have been increasing, they are less likely to reach the 2021 level. Yet, given a solid balance sheet, the company is expected to be able to enhance shareholder value through efficient capital distributions.
The stock has jumped 6.41% over the past four weeks. Additionally, no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 7 higher, for fiscal 2025; 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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