Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, October 19. Morgan Stanley provides financial products and services to a group of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Morgan Stanley as a buy. But with 52.4% of analysts rating it a buy, Morgan Stanley is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 60.2% buys. Analysts like Morgan Stanley better than competitor Deutsche Bank AG (USA overall. One out of four analysts rate Deutsche Bank AG (USA a buy compared to 11 of 21 for Morgan Stanley. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $7.56 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 36 cents per share. Estimates range from 24 cents to 56 cents.

What our community says:
 CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 77% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 80.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Morgan Stanley and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 662 posts in the past 30 days. Morgan Stanley's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
 Morgan Stanley's income has fallen year over year by an average of 33% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Net Margin

10.5%

10.2%

8.8%

1.5%

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