Morgan Stanley reports fall in quarterly profit

Overall, Morgan Stanley reported a 12% decline in second-quarter profit but still topped analysts’ subdued expectations.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 59 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

Speaking on CNBC following Morgan Stanley’s second-quarter earnings, Gorman said there remains a great deal of uncertainty on the impact of Brexit, and the bank is “not having a knee-jerk reaction”.

Gorman spoke on CNBC Wednesday morning after Morgan Stanley soundly beat earnings and revenue expectations for its second-quarter performance.

The firm’s book value per share was $36.29 at the end of the quarter, while its tangible book value per share was $31.39. For the prior quarter revenue for the company hit $7.86B.

Revenue for the NY bank’s wealth-management arm in the latest quarter slipped $64 million, or about 2%, from the year-earlier period to $3.81 billion. Following the release of the earnings report the stock was up about 3% at $29.05 in early trading indications Wednesday. This was also better than the Street prediction of $8.3 billion.

Revenue from stock sales and trading, typically Morgan Stanley’s strongest division, fell to $2.1 billion from $2.3 billion.

The New York bank’s earnings showed strength in bond-trading, where revenue of $1.3 billion was consistent with past year, even after the sale of its oil business at the end of 2015. Competitors including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp also reported strong bond trading and weak equity trading revenue. That helped increase fee-based assets by about $22 billion from the first quarter to $820 billion, which represents about 40% of Morgan Stanley’s$2 trillion in client assets.

Morgan Stanley posted revenue from fixed income of $1.3 billion, whereas $3.8 billion and $1.1 billion in wealth management and investment banking, respectively. “We remain committed to executing for our clients and delivering on our strategic priorities for our shareholders”, said James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley.