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Morgan Stanley (MS) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) closed at $83.58, marking a -1.09% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.77%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.65%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.23%.

Heading into today, shares of the investment bank had gained 1.81% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's gain of 2% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.66% in that time.

Morgan Stanley will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 18, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.60, up 11.11% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.62 billion, up 3.75% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.49 per share and revenue of $55.07 billion, which would represent changes of +2.04% and +2.62%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Morgan Stanley. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.67% lower. Morgan Stanley is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Morgan Stanley has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.02 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.22, which means Morgan Stanley is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that MS currently has a PEG ratio of 1.81. 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. Financial - Investment Bank stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.86 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 204, which puts it in the bottom 20% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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