Morgan Stanley Tops Second-Quarter Views on Investment Banking, Trading Gains

Morgan Stanley's (MS) second-quarter revenue surpassed Wall Street's projections, with robust investment banking and trading gains driving the top-line higher year on year. Revenue surged 27% annually to $21.35 billion, while the FactSet-polled consensus was for $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley reported earnings per share of $3.46 for the June quarter, compared with $2.13 a year earlier. Revenue in the institutional securities division, which accounted for more than half of the overall top line, rose to $11.04 billion from $7.64 billion in the prior-year period. Within that segment, investment banking revenue jumped 58% to $2.44 billion amid sharp gains in advisory and equity and fixed-income underwriting. Morgan Stanley was a book-running manager for the record initial public offering of Elon Musk's SpaceX (SPCX) in June. Equities trading revenue soared 69% to a record $6.3 billion. "Excellent results in institutional securities were driven by our leading equities franchise with continued momentum in investment banking and fixed income," Chief Executive Ted Pick said in a statement. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America.