Morgan Stanley (MS.US) Q3 results beat expectations! Equity business revenue surged 41% year-over-year; wealth management business continues high growth.

Morgan Stanley (MS.US) reported its third-quarter 2026 results before the U.S. market opened on Wednesday. The earnings report showed that Morgan Stanley's Q3 net revenue was $20.338 billion, up 12% year-over-year, beating market expectations; net income was $4.909 billion, up 6% year-over-year; diluted earnings per share were $3.03, compared with $2.80 in the same period last year. Net interest income was $3.25 billion, better than the market expectation of $2.78 billion. Return on tangible common equity (ROTCE) was 22.6%. By business segment, Institutional Securities reported third-quarter net revenue of $10.029 billion, up 18% year-over-year. Among this, Equity net revenue was $5.799 billion, surging 41% year-over-year, above the market expectation of $4.9 billion, reflecting strong institutional client demand for equity trading and hedging amid volatile market conditions; Fixed Income (FICC) net revenue was $2.011 billion, down 7% year-over-year, broadly in line with the performance of other major banks over the same period; Investment Banking net revenue was $2.159 billion, up 2% year-over-year, with growth slowing markedly. The Wealth Management business continued its high growth. Third-quarter net revenue was $9.065 billion, up 10% year-over-year, a record high for a single quarter. Net new assets for the quarter reached $232.4 billion, with fee-based asset inflows of $80.5 billion, reflecting the continued effectiveness of the wealth management client acquisition and asset migration strategy. As of the end of the third quarter, the combined client asset scale of the Wealth Management and Investment Management businesses reached $10.5 trillion, approaching the bank's long-term target of $10 trillion. Investment Management reported third-quarter net revenue of $1.459 billion, down 12% year-over-year, the only segment among the three major businesses to decline year-over-year, mainly due to last year's high base and the structural impact of the market environment on demand for asset management products. In addition, the bank repurchased approximately $1.54 billion of common stock in the third quarter and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.15 per share (payable on November 13), continuing a stable pace of capital returns.