Morgan Stanley reports $1.7bn profit

The bank added wealth management revenues jumped 5.4% to $3.9 billion from $3.7 billion and revenues in investment management segment climbed 6.5% to $751 million from $705 million.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) reported Monday a profit for the second quarter that declined 9 percent from last year, reflecting higher income tax provisions and absence of prior year tax benefits.

“The CEO said: “…I admire the question, but we’re obviously I wouldn’t talk about deals on a call or corporate strategy like that. The bank has pivoted business toward that division since the financial crisis. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%.

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Donald T. Nicolaisen sold 4,160 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. That fell short of the $1.9 billion it reported in the same period of 2014. Per-share earnings, though, beat analysts’ average estimate of 74 cents.

Total net revenue at the bank rose to $9.74bn from $8.61 bn.

Profits were boosted by its wealth management division, which saw a 4.7% rise in revenues to $3.88bn.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) stock is now trading 2.44% below its 52-week-high, 28.66% above its 52-week-low.

This August 12, 2014, file photo, shows the headquarters of Morgan Stanley, near Times Square, in New York.

Those strong figures are partly responsible for the higher costs in the quarter, as better performance in the investment banking units translates into bigger bonuses for staff. The company has a market cap of $78.88 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.65.

The firm has reduced its balance sheets and expenses in the past year.

“This was a very solid quarter, not a sensational quarter”, Mr. Gorman told analysts Monday.

Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Group Inc had the largest stake with ownership of 432.02 million shares as of Q1 2015 for 100% of the US long equity exposure.

Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Pruzan said in an interview that trading government bonds and other interest rate-sensitive securities accounted for much of the increase in fixed income.

On an adjusted basis, Morgan Stanley’s revenue from trading fixed-income, currency and commodities rose 25% to $1.27bn in the three months ended June 30. Last year same quarter income was $1.9billion or $0.92 a share. But suffice to say we’re very conformable with business we’ve got and the size of the business, and we think the opportunity to improve margin with the business we have, particularly by building out the bank and by organic growth within the businesses, is extremely attractive to us.

“It’s super-hard to navigate”, warns Evercore ISI analyst Glenn Schorr.