How Does Morgan Stanley Make Money

Morgan Stanley is a capital markets business based in the US. Morgan Stanley stocks (MS.US) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Its last market close was $97.69 – an increase of 2.99% over the previous week. Morgan Stanley employs 74,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $58.3 billion.

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Is it a good time to buy Morgan Stanley stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

How has Coronavirus impacted Morgan Stanley's stock price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Morgan Stanley's stock price has had significant positive movement.

Its last market close was $100.69, which is 47.94% up on its pre-crash value of $52.42 and 270.18% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the stocks fell as low as $27.2.

If you had bought $1,000 worth of Morgan Stanley stocks at the start of February 2020, those stocks would have been worth $528.67 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth $1,914.12.

Morgan Stanley stock price

Use our graph to track the performance of MS stocks over time.

Morgan Stanley shares at a glance

Key figures

Information last updated 2021-11-14.

Latest market close	$100.69
52-week range	$55.70 - $105.34
50-day moving average	$100.56
200-day moving average	$95.89
Wall St. target price	$112.33
PE ratio	12.749
Dividend yield	$2.1 (2.12%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	$7.83

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Note: The dollar amounts in the table below are in Canadian dollars.

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Morgan Stanley price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $100.69 from 2021-11-16

1 week (2021-11-10)	2.99%
1 month (2021-10-15)	-1.42%
3 months (2021-08-17)	8.56%
6 months (2021-05-17)	14.30%

1 year (2020-11-17)	71.21%
2 years (2019-11-15)	105.53%
3 years (2018-11-16)	128.17%
5 years (2016-11-17)	151.91%

Is Morgan Stanley under- or over-valued?

Valuing Morgan Stanley stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Morgan Stanley's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Morgan Stanley's P/E ratio

Morgan Stanley's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 13x. In other words, Morgan Stanley shares trade at around 13x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Morgan Stanley's PEG ratio

Morgan Stanley's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 6.3588. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Morgan Stanley's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Morgan Stanley financials

Revenue TTM	$58.3 billion
Operating margin TTM	39.84%
Gross profit TTM	$42.8 billion
Return on assets TTM	1.38%
Return on equity TTM	15.05%
Profit margin	25.27%
Book value	$54.56
Market capitalisation	$179.2 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Morgan Stanley's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Morgan Stanley.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Morgan Stanley's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 21.96

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Morgan Stanley's overall score of 21.96 (as at 01/01/2019) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 31st percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Morgan Stanley is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Morgan Stanley's environmental score

Environmental score: 2.31/100

Morgan Stanley's environmental score of 2.31 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Morgan Stanley is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Morgan Stanley's social score

Social score: 10.97/100

Morgan Stanley's social score of 10.97 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Morgan Stanley is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Morgan Stanley's governance score

Governance score: 7.68/100

Morgan Stanley's governance score puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Morgan Stanley is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Morgan Stanley's controversy score

Controversy score: 3/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Morgan Stanley scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that Morgan Stanley hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.

Morgan Stanley share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 26.02% of net profits

Recently Morgan Stanley has paid out, on average, around 26.02% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.8% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Morgan Stanley shareholders could enjoy a 2.8% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Morgan Stanley's case, that would currently equate to about $2.1 per share.

While Morgan Stanley's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Morgan Stanley may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Morgan Stanley's most recent dividend payout was on 15 November 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 28 October 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Morgan Stanley's shares ever split?

Morgan Stanley's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 27 January 2000. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Morgan Stanley shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Morgan Stanley shares which in turn could have impacted Morgan Stanley's share price.

Morgan Stanley share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Morgan Stanley's shares have ranged in value from as little as $55.7012 up to $105.34. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Morgan Stanley's is 1.546. This would suggest that Morgan Stanley's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Morgan Stanley overview

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The company operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments. The Institutional Securities segment offers capital raising and financial advisory services, including services related to the underwriting of debt, equity, and other securities, as well as advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, real estate, and project finance. This segment also provides sales and trading services, such as sales, financing, prime brokerage, and market-making services in equity and fixed income products consisting of foreign exchange and commodities; corporate and commercial real estate loans, which provides secured lending facilities and financing for sales and trading customers, as well as asset-backed and mortgage lending; and wealth management services, investment, and research services. The Wealth Management segment offers various financial services and solutions covering brokerage and investment advisory services; financial and wealth planning services; stock plan administration services; annuity and insurance products; securities-based lending, residential real estate loans, and other lending products; and banking and retirement plan services to individual investors and small to medium-sized businesses and institutions. The Investment Management segment provides various investment strategies and products comprising equity, fixed income, liquidity, and alternative/other products to benefit/defined contribution plans, foundations, endowments, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and third-party fund sponsors and corporations through institutional and intermediary channels. The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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