Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) impressed with fourth-quarter results on Thursday, led by 51% revenue growth from its equities trading business.
Chairman and CEO Ted Pick called it an "excellent fourth quarter" that capped off "one of the strongest years in the firm’s history".
Quarterly profit of $3.71 billion, or $2.22 a share, was more than doubled from those a year earlier when regulatory charges weighed and well above the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.70, per LSEG.
This was on revenues that came in at $16.22 billion, up 26% year-on-year, 5.5% quarter-on-quarter and also besting the $15.03 billion average analyst estimate.
The Institutional Securities ($7.3 billion) division further closed the revenue gap on Wealth Management ($7.5 billion), thanks to strength across markets and continued improvement in Investment Banking, said Pick.
But while revenues from the investment bank arm were up 25% to $1.6 billion, this was outshone by trading, with equity net revenues up 51% to $3.3 billion.
This echoed reports from sector rivals JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, which reported a day earlier and noted activity had been ramped up around the US elections.
The shares rose 2.3% in early trading.