Morgan Stanley: quarterly profit down 11%

(CercleFinance.com) - Morgan Stanley reported a 11% drop in quarterly profit on Wednesday, citing a "slow start to the year" following turbulent markets in the fourth quarter of 2018.


The bank said that its net attributable income fell to 2.4 billion dollars, or 1.39 dollar per share, in the first quarter ended 31 March, from 2.7 billion dollars, or 1.45 dollar per share, a year ago.

Morgan Stanley posted net revenues of 10.3 billion dollars over the quarter, down 7% from the 11.1 billion dollars reported a year ago.

In particular, equity sales and trading net revenues fell 21%, driven by decreases in derivatives and cash equities due to lower activity from clients, MS said.

But Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James P. Gorman said "even though risks to the global environment remained," markets have since "recovered."

Investors welcomed this news: the Morgan Stanley share was up 2.7% in pre-market trading this morning.

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