Morgan Stanley (MS)

Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter 2026 net revenues of $20.3 billion on 14 October 2026, up from $18.2 billion a year earlier 1. Net income was $4.9 billion, or $3.03 per diluted share, against $4.6 billion a year before 1. Return on tangible common equity, profit set against the shareholders' money less goodwill, was 22.6 percent 1.

Stock trading carried the quarter: equity net revenues rose 41 percent to $5.8 billion on client engagement and strength in Asia 1. Reuters tied the jump to market swings around the interest-rate decision and the US-Iran war 5. Wealth Management posted record net revenues of $9.1 billion and record net new assets of $232 billion, just over half from IPO-related flows 1.

Fixed income was the weak spot, down 7 percent to $2,011 million on weaker credit and commodities results 1. The open question is how long the wave of share listings keeps feeding the wealth business 54. Chief executive Ted Pick said that beyond IPOs, the firm's ties to private companies mean "this cycle has many years to come" 4.

Morgan Stanley's predecessor companies date back to 1924, and the present company was first incorporated in Delaware in 1981 2. Its modern shape came on 31 May 1997, when Morgan Stanley Group merged with Dean Witter, Discover & Co. in a merger of equals 6. The deal joined a Wall Street investment bank with a national broker of 9,946 account executives and the Discover Card 6.

The company spun off its card business, Discover Financial Services, to its shareholders on 30 June 2007 7. The 2008 crisis then struck: fiscal 2008 net revenues fell to $24,739 million from $27,979 million, and net income to $1,707 million from $3,209 million 7. On 21 September 2008 the Federal Reserve approved its change into a bank holding company, putting it under bank supervision 7.

In October 2008 Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, MUFG, bought preferred shares from Morgan Stanley for a total of $9 billion and opened a global alliance 7. In 2009 Morgan Stanley combined its brokers with Citigroup's Smith Barney in a joint venture, owning 51 percent at first 78. It raised that to 65 percent in September 2012 and to 100 percent on 28 June 2013 8.

Wealth then grew by purchase: Morgan Stanley completed its acquisition of the online broker E*TRADE on 2 October 2020 and of the fund manager Eaton Vance on 1 March 2021 910. Net revenues rose to $59.8 billion in 2021 from $48.8 billion in 2020, and net income to $15.0 billion from $11.0 billion 10. Pick later said buying E*TRADE "completed the funnel" that brings self-directed traders and workplace stock-plan holders toward advisers 4.

Deals and trading then slowed: net revenues were $54.1 billion in 2023 against $53.7 billion in 2022, while net income fell to $9.1 billion from $11.0 billion 11. Institutional Securities revenues dropped to $23.1 billion on fewer completed deals and lower client trading 11. Costs also weighed, including $353 million of severance and a $286 million special assessment from the FDIC, the bank deposit insurer 11.

Ted Pick, a career equities and trading executive, became chief executive in January 2024 and chairman in January 2025 2. In 2025 net revenues reached $70.6 billion, up 14 percent, and net income $16.9 billion, up 26 percent 2. The annual report credits stronger Equity results and underwriting and advisory fees, plus asset management fees on higher markets in Wealth Management 2.

Diluted earnings per share went from $5.18 in 2023 to $7.95 in 2024 and $10.21 in 2025 2. Return on tangible common equity rose from 12.8 percent to 21.6 percent over the same years, past the company's own goal of 20 percent 2.

Three businesses under one holding company

Morgan Stanley is a financial holding company regulated by the Federal Reserve, run as three segments: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management 2. In 2025 they brought in net revenues of $33.1 billion, $31.8 billion and $6.5 billion 2.

Institutional Securities: banking and trading

This segment advises companies on mergers, underwrites their stock and bond sales and trades for corporations, governments, financial institutions and very wealthy clients 2. Its third-quarter 2026 net revenues were $10.0 billion, up from $8.5 billion, with pre-tax income of $3.5 billion 1.

Investment banking earned $2,159 million: advisory rose to $887 million on more completed deals in the Americas, while equity underwriting fell to $525 million on fewer IPOs and blocks 1. Equity trading brought $5,799 million, led by prime brokerage, the business of financing investment funds' positions 14.

Reuters reported that Morgan Stanley was lead financial adviser on Uber's $14.8 billion deal for Germany's Delivery Hero 5. It also reported underwriting roles in the expected listings of the artificial intelligence companies Anthropic and OpenAI 5.

Wealth Management: advisers, E*TRADE and Workplace

Wealth Management serves individuals and businesses through three channels: financial advisers, self-directed investing on E*TRADE, and Workplace, which runs company stock plans and retirement plans 24. It made record quarterly net revenues of $9,065 million, with a pre-tax margin, profit before tax as a share of revenue, of 30.4 percent 1.

Asset management fees, charged on assets in fee-based accounts, rose to $5,544 million, and net interest income, from lending and swept client cash, reached $2,228 million 1. Loans stood at $201.1 billion and fee-based client assets at $3,155 billion 1. Deposits grew by nearly $30 billion in the quarter to $465 billion, which finance chief Sharon Yeshaya called a strategic choice to grow the bank 4.

Finance Magnates reported that E*TRADE clients can now trade bitcoin, ether and solana at a 50-basis-point commission, through the infrastructure firm Zerohash 19. Reuters first reported the plan, which a spokesperson tied to the first half of 2026 18.

In October 2025 the firm agreed to buy EquityZen, a marketplace where holders of private-company shares sell to accredited investors, its first acquisition under Pick 17. InvestmentNews reported that the platform had handled more than 49,000 transactions across over 450 private companies 17.

Investment Management: funds, Parametric and crypto trusts

Investment Management runs stock, bond, alternative and tailored strategies for institutions and the clients of intermediaries 2. Assets under management, the money it invests for others, reached $2,046 billion at the end of September 2026, but quarterly net revenues fell to $1,459 million from $1,651 million 1. The cause was reversed carried interest, a share of fund profits, tied to investments in one private fund 1.

Parametric, which builds custom systematic portfolios, held $524 billion of long-term assets at the end of 2025 2. The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust began operating on 7 April 2026, and an Ethereum Trust run by Morgan Stanley Investment Management plans to stake part of its ether 2122.

Reuters reported that investors sought to cash out 11.4 percent of the shares of the North Haven Private Income Fund, a private credit fund, in its latest tender, after 11.6 percent the quarter before 5.

Offices and people

Its headquarters are at 1585 Broadway in New York, with other main offices in London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo 2. It employed about 83 thousand people at the end of 2025: 54 thousand in the Americas, 19 thousand in Asia and 10 thousand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa 2.

Pick ran Institutional Securities before taking the top job 2. Sharon Yeshaya has been finance chief since June 2021, and Andrew Saperstein and Daniel Simkowitz are co-presidents 2. At the annual meeting on 14 May 2026, shareholders elected every director and rejected a proposal for an independent board chairman 14.

Rivals

Reuters set the quarter beside Goldman Sachs, which posted a similar jump in equities trading, and JPMorgan Chase, whose investment banking slowed 5. It noted that Goldman and Morgan Stanley have both grown wealth management to steady their earnings 5. In retail trading, Finance Magnates compared E*TRADE's crypto commission with the costs at Coinbase, Schwab and Robinhood 19.

Problems on file

Since February 2024, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and E*TRADE Securities have faced class actions claiming they paid too little interest on swept client cash 3. A consolidated complaint in the New Jersey case was filed on 16 July 2026, and state securities regulators are asking about the sweep program too 3.

In the third quarter it charged off $105 million of corporate and commercial real estate loans, most already provided for in earlier quarters 1.

The umbrella, in words

The annual report's subsidiaries list names, among others, the broker-dealer Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, the brokerage Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and two national banks 12. Abroad it names Morgan Stanley & Co. International in the United Kingdom, Morgan Stanley Europe SE in Germany and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities in Japan 12.

In Japan it shares a securities joint venture with MUFG: Morgan Stanley owns 40 percent of the economic interest and MUFG 60 percent 2. Morgan Stanley consolidates the Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities arm through its 51 percent vote 2.

The largest holder is MUFG, which reported owning 24.12 percent of the common stock in a July 2026 filing and also holds the Series C preferred shares 152. Vanguard Capital Management reported 5.65 percent 16. Under a 2018 sales plan, MUFG resumed selling shares into Morgan Stanley's buyback from 30 July 2026 15.

On 18 June 2026 the OCC, the national bank regulator, gave preliminary conditional approval to a new subsidiary, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, to hold digital assets 2023.

For the fourth quarter, Yeshaya said the firm expects a modest increase in net interest income, subject to rates and client behavior 4. She also guided to a tax rate slightly above the third quarter's 23.3 percent 4.

The company's standing goal is a return on tangible common equity of 20 percent, which the annual report says rests on a normal market environment 2. Pick said the firm holds 300 basis points of capital above its requirements, which affords it "substantial flexibility ahead" 4.

The board declared a dividend of $1.15 a share, payable on 13 November 2026 to holders of record on 30 October 2026 1. On 24 June 2026 the company raised the quarterly dividend from $1.00 and reauthorized share repurchases of up to $20 billion, with no set end date 13.

The Federal Reserve expects the firm's stress capital buffer, an extra cushion set by its stress tests, to stay at 4.3 percent until 1 October 2027 13. Pick said the firm looks forward to regulators finalizing the bank capital framework 4.

Yeshaya said moving eligible assets into the bank should bring a funding benefit over the course of next year 4. Finance Magnates reported that E*TRADE's crypto services are to move eventually to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust 19. The OCC says the trust bank may not open until all its preopening requirements are met 20.

Pick said banking pipelines remain high and that pent-up demand supports "an ongoing favorable outlook for investment banking activity" 4. Yeshaya told Reuters she believes deals called off in the third quarter can come back over the next quarters 5.

In the New York cash sweep case, the brokerage moved to dismiss the complaint on 12 September 2025, and the New Jersey case now has its consolidated complaint 3.

Past

Morgan Stanley's revenue grew from $7.0 billion in fiscal 2016 to $59 billion in fiscal 2025, up 26.7% a year, and rose in 7 of 9 years. Net income was positive in all 10 of those years. The deepest fall was 45% from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2021. Over the 3 fiscal years to 2025, Morgan Stanley's diluted share count shrank about 2.4% a year. Dividends declared per share rose from $0.70 in fiscal 2016 to $3.85 in fiscal 2025. Morgan Stanley's filings since 2017 show no warning events: no bankruptcy or receivership notice, no debt default notice, no exchange listing notice, no restatement warning, no auditor change, no material cyber incident and no late-report notice. 12

Present

In its latest annual figures on file, for the fiscal year ended 2025-12-31, Morgan Stanley reported revenue of $59 billion and a profit of $17 billion. Morgan Stanley's revenue of $59 billion in fiscal 2025 ranks in the top 6% by size among 29 graded names in its industry family; a net margin of 28.5% ranks in the top 29%; revenue growth of 39.8% a year over the last 3 filed years ranks in the top 27%. 31

Return on equity in the fiscal year ended 2025-12-31 was about 15 cents of profit for every dollar of shareholders' money. Leverage was about 92 cents per dollar of assets, and its share count shrank 1.2% over the year. Shareholders' equity, or book value, the net worth on its own books, was $112.65 billion as of 2025-12-31. 14

The chief executive is Pick, Edward N (Chairman and CEO), filing under that title since 2024-01-19, 2.8 years. The 22 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 6.4 years. Nine officer or director changes were reported on Form 8-K since 2023-10-21, against the 22 people in charge now. 1

Future

A quarterly report (Form 10-Q) for the quarter ending 2026-09-30 is due by 2026-11-09. An annual report (Form 10-K) for the fiscal year ending 2026-12-31 is due by 2027-03-01. Morgan Stanley's room to grow from the newest filed statements shows cash of $112 billion against debt of $342 billion leaves negative 16.2% of its assets as net cash, in the bottom 9% of its family; cash from operations less capital spending is negative 30.3% of revenue, in the bottom 12%. Revenue grew 39.8% a year over the last three filed years against 26.7% over all 10, speeding up in the top 17% of its family; the newest year grew 9.1%, in the bottom 30%. 51

Revenue of $59 billion in fiscal 2025 came in 31.1% below the $86 billion its prior three years' pace pointed to; net income of $17 billion against a prior three-year average of $11 billion; a net margin of 28.5% against 31.9% before. 1

How the company operates

Morgan Stanley is a brokerage business. Morgan Stanley reported 3 lines of business in fiscal 2025: Institutional Securities at $33 billion, Wealth Management at $32 billion, Investment Management at $6.5 billion, with all 3 growing in the latest filed year and the largest line at 46% of revenue. By geography in fiscal 2025, revenue came from Americas 75%, Asia 13%, EMEA 12%. 31

New moves

On 2026-10-20, Morgan Stanley filed Form 424B2, offering prospectuses for notes or structured products, often a bank's structured products where financial health is material. On 2026-10-15, Morgan Stanley earned $4.9 billion on stock trading and wealth, with stock trading higher than a year earlier. On 2026-10-02, onsemi and Synaptics replaced their June merger agreement, with onsemi having lined up as much as $2.45 billion of Morgan Stanley loans. 56