Investing.com - Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reported stronger than expected second quarter earnings ahead of Monday’s opening bell, sending its shares higher in pre-market trade.
Morgan Stanley said adjusted earnings per share came in at 79 cents in the three months ended June 30, beating expectations for earnings of 73 cents per share and compared to earnings of 60 cents a share in the same period a year earlier.
The earnings for the prior year second quarter included a net discrete tax benefit of $609 million or $0.31 per diluted share, principally related to the re-measurement of reserves and related interest.
The bank’s second quarter adjusted revenue totaled $9.56 billion, above forecasts for revenue of $9.10 billion and up 12.2% from revenue of $8.6 billion in the same period last year.
Wealth Management net revenues were $3.9 billion. Fee based asset flows for the quarter were $13.9 billion, with total client assets of $2.0 trillion at quarter end.
Investment Management reported net revenues of $751 million with assets under management or supervision of $403 billion.
Equity sales and trading net revenues of $2.3 billion increased from $1.8 billion a year ago, while Fixed Income & Commodities sales and trading net revenues of $1.3 billion increased from $1.0 billion a year ago.
Advisory revenues of $423 million, equity underwriting revenues of $489 million and fixed income underwriting revenues of $528 million were essentially unchanged from the prior year quarter.
James P. Gorman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We delivered a strong quarter across each of our businesses, through client-focused execution, expense discipline and prudent risk management."
Immediately after the earnings announcement, Morgan Stanley shares rose 3.77% in trading prior to the opening bell to hit $41.75 from a closing price of $40.24 on Friday.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was upbeat. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.15% at the open, the S&P 500 futures indicated a rise of 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures signaled an increase of 0.15%.