Morgan Stanley (MS) ended the recent trading session at $176.59, demonstrating a +2.94% change from the preceding day's closing price. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.56%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.26%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.78%.
The investment bank's stock has dropped by 5.8% in the past month, falling short of the Finance sector's loss of 1.23% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.27%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Morgan Stanley in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Morgan Stanley to post earnings of $2.89 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 11.15%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $19.07 billion, up 7.52% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.09 per share and revenue of $74.89 billion, which would represent changes of +8.62% and +6.01%, respectively, from the prior year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Morgan Stanley. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 1.05% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Currently, Morgan Stanley is carrying a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
From a valuation perspective, Morgan Stanley is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.47. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 14.35.
Also, we should mention that MS has a PEG ratio of 1.38. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Financial - Investment Bank industry stood at 1.15 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 35, putting it in the top 15% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within 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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