In the latest trading session, Morgan Stanley (MS) closed at $178.83, marking a +1.13% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.09% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.38%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.13%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the investment bank had gained 7.14% outpaced the Finance sector's gain of 1.74% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.89%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Morgan Stanley in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.28, up 2.7% from the prior-year quarter. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $17.07 billion, indicating a 5.24% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $9.76 per share and revenue of $69.71 billion, indicating changes of +22.77% and +12.87%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Morgan Stanley. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.5% higher within the past month. Morgan Stanley is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
With respect to valuation, Morgan Stanley is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.12. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 17.73 of its industry.
It is also worth noting that MS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.45. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Financial - Investment Bank was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.13 at yesterday's closing price.
The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 27, finds itself in the top 11% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Morgan Stanley (MS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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