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Morgan Stanley (MS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $92.47, indicating a +0.21% change from the previous session's end. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 1.11% for the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.24%.

The investment bank's stock has climbed by 7.13% in the past month, exceeding the Finance sector's gain of 1.69% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.48%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Morgan Stanley in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on April 16, 2024. In that report, analysts expect Morgan Stanley to post earnings of $1.71 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 0.59%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $14.4 billion, indicating a 0.79% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $6.35 per share and revenue of $56.63 billion. These totals would mark changes of +16.3% and +4.59%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Morgan Stanley. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.24% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Right now, Morgan Stanley possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Morgan Stanley's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.53. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.5, so one might conclude that Morgan Stanley is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that MS has a PEG ratio of 1.87 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Financial - Investment Bank industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.27.

The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 39, putting it in the top 16% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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