Morgan Stanley beats estimates on trading, but shares dip as wealth management disappoints

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Morgan Stanley posted third-quarter results Wednesday that topped profit estimates on better-than-expected trading revenue.

Here's what the company reported:

Profit fell 9% to $2.41 billion, or $1.38 a share, from a year ago, the New York-based bank said in a statement. Revenue grew 2% to $13.27 billion, essentially matching expectations.

Morgan Stanley's trading operations helped offset revenue misses elsewhere at the firm. The bank's bond traders produced $1.95 billion in revenue, roughly $200 million more than the StreetAccount estimate, while equity traders brought in $2.51 billion in revenue, $100 million more than expected.

But the bank's all-important wealth management division generated $6.4 billion in revenue, below the estimate by more than $200 million, as compensation costs in the division rose.

Investment banking accounted for another miss in the quarter, producing $938 million in revenue, below the $1.11 billion estimate, as the company cited weakness in mergers and IPO listings. The bank's investment management division essentially met expectations with $1.34 billion in revenue.

Shares of Morgan Stanley dipped 3% in premarket trading.

CEO James Gorman cited a «mixed» environment for his businesses and acknowledged that the firm's wealth management division gathered fewer new assets than in recent quarters. That's because surging interest rates have made money market funds and Treasuries attractive, he told analysts Wednesday. The wealth management business was still tracking to hit his three-year goal of generating $1 trillion in new assets, he added.

«When people have a choice of making a 4%, 5% return by doing nothing, they're not going to be trading in the markets,» Gorman said.

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