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Morgan Stanley (MS) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) closed at $97.23, marking a -0.71% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.32%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.68%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.15%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the investment bank had lost 4.72% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's loss of 3.63% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.61% in that time.

Morgan Stanley will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Morgan Stanley to post earnings of $1.81 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 5.73%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.3 billion, up 4.87% from the year-ago period.

MS's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.97 per share and revenue of $59.54 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +21.12% and +23.53%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Morgan Stanley should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Morgan Stanley is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Morgan Stanley is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.28. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.97.

Meanwhile, MS's PEG ratio is currently 1.75. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Financial - Investment Bank was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.59 at yesterday's closing price.

The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 58, putting it in the top 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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