Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter 2026 results on October 14 that exceeded analyst expectations, helped by a sharp gain in its equities trading division.
The firm posted earnings per share of $3.03, above the LSEG estimate of $2.91, while revenue reached $20.34 billion against an estimate of $19.95 billion.
Profit rose 6.5 percent to $4.91 billion, or $3.03 per share, and revenue climbed 12 percent from the comparable period.
Equities Trading Drives the Quarter
The equities trading division delivered the strongest performance, with revenue rising 41 percent to $5.79 billion.
That result exceeded the StreetAccount estimate by more than $900 million.
The capital markets performance came after investors had monitored whether trading activity and dealmaking could maintain momentum.
Analysts were watching wealth management inflows, trading revenue, deal fees, margins, and share repurchases.
Morgan Stanley entered the quarter with a combined client asset base above $10 trillion across Wealth Management and Investment Management, a figure that includes some duplicated client assets between the divisions.
In the second quarter, Wealth Management revenue rose 14 percent to $8.86 billion, while client assets reached $8.08 trillion in Wealth Management and $2 trillion in Investment Management.
Wealth Management net new assets reached $148.1 billion in the second quarter, with about 53 percent linked to IPO-related inflows from certain Workplace clients.
The division also recorded $195.7 billion in lending.
The firm also faced liquidity attention in parts of its private credit business.
Morgan Stanley’s North Haven Private Income Fund received third-quarter repurchase requests totaling 11.4 percent of units outstanding, compared with 11.6 percent in the second quarter.
The fund planned to repurchase 5 percent of units, satisfying about 43.8 percent of investor requests, and the issue was described as a fund-level liquidity matter rather than a firm-level cash situation.
Investment Management also contributed recurring fee growth, with second-quarter revenue of $1.65 billion, a 6 percent increase, supported by long-term inflows and higher average assets under management.
Morgan Stanley’s second-quarter Form 10-Q showed a standardized CET1 capital ratio of 14.9 percent.
The company also bought back $1.5 billion of shares during that quarter and renewed authorization for up to $20 billion in repurchases.
Morgan Stanley shares had lagged broader market indexes before the earnings release, while investors evaluated whether results could change the stock’s outlook.
