Morgan Stanley's first-quarter profit beat expectations as
rising revenue from its wealth management division offset
declines in its investment banking and trading units.
Shares, however, fell more than 2% in premarket trading.
Revenue from investment banking fell 24% to $1.25
billion, while the wealth management unit saw a 11% jump,
bringing in $110 billion in net new assets.
Wall Street's investment banks have suffered the most
from a downturn in mergers and acquisitions as investors shunned
risky bets against the backdrop of volatile markets and rapidly
rising interest rates.
The turmoil has also brought initial public offerings to
a virtual halt as startups put off market debuts until investor
sentiment improves.
The downswing in investment banking activity, which
forms the core of the bank's business, dragged its total revenue
down nearly 2% to $14.5 billion in the quarter.
"The investments we have made in our Wealth Management business continue to bear fruit," Chief Executive James Gorman said in a statement.
Results from Morgan Stanley round out a choppy reporting
season for Wall Street's biggest banks as the collapse of two
mid-sized lenders in March sent shockwaves across the world and
further fueled recession worries.
The bank's closest rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc also
reported a slump in its investment banking unit as dealmaking and bond trading slumped and it lost money on the sale of some assets in its consumer business.
Morgan Stanley set aside $234 million in the quarter compared with $57 million a year ago, bracing for a deterioration in commercial real estate and customers potentially falling behind on loan payments amid rising costs of borrowing and recession worries.
The bank earned $1.70 per share, beating analysts'
average estimate of $1.62 per share, according to Refinitiv
data.
Profit applicable to the bank's common shareholders for the three months ended Mar. 31 fell to $2.83 billion, or $1.70 per diluted share. That compares to $3.54 billion, or $2.02 per diluted share, a year earlier.
(Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and
Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
