Morgan Stanley tops analysts’ revenue estimates by $1 billion on stronger-than-expected trading

Morgan Stanley is set to report third-quarter earnings before the opening bell on Thursday.

Here’s what Wall Street expects:

Earnings: $1.28 a share, less than 1% higher than a year earlier, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue: $10.64 billion, 6% higher than a year earlier

Wealth management: $4.45 billion, according to FactSet

Trading: Equities $2.19 billion, Fixed Income $1.59 billion

Will buoyant stock markets be enough to lift Morgan Stanley’s results in the third quarter?

Under Chief Executive Officer James Gorman, Morgan Stanley has emphasized its wealth management division, a far steadier business than its trading operations. Wealth management benefits from rising markets as fees typically climb along with assets under management.

In fact, Gorman has doubled down on his push to diversify away from Morgan Stanley’s traditional strengths of trading and investment banking.

Last week he announced that his bank is acquiring Eaton Vance for $7 billion, adding heft and scale to the smallest of the bank’s three main businesses, investment management. In February, he announced the $13 billion takeover of discount brokerage E-Trade.

Analysts also have high expectations for the firm’s trading operations after JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs both beat estimates on better-than-expected markets revenue.

Morgan Stanley is the last of the six biggest U.S. banks to report third quarter earnings. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup beats analysts’ profit expectations as they set aside smaller loan-loss provisions. Bank of America and Wells Fargo disappointed as the firms struggled with the impact of lower interest rates.

Shares of Morgan Stanley are almost unchanged this year through Wednesday, outperforming the 31% decline of the KBW Bank Index.

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