Morgan Stanley beats estimates as equity trading jumps 41%
Profit of $3.03 a share topped forecasts, helped by a strong quarter for equities desks.
Earnings · Wednesday, October 14, 2026 · 10:15 AM ET
Morgan Stanley beat third-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, earning $4.91 billion, or $3.03 a share, against $2.91 a share expected by analysts polled by LSEG (Reuters, AP). A year earlier it earned $2.80 a share.
Equities trading did the work
Reuters reports equity trading revenue of $5.8 billion, up almost 41% from a year ago, while fixed income trading revenue fell 7.3% to $2.01 billion. Investment banking revenue rose 2% to $2.16 billion. Reuters notes that global deal value fell 41% from the previous quarter, per LSEG data.
A better day than Bank of America
The report follows Bank of America's miss after a $1.2 billion fine, covered in our First Light story.