Morgan Stanley shares drop 4% after missing profit estimate as investment banking revenue collapses

Morgan Stanley on Friday posted third-quarter results that missed analysts’ expectations as investment banking revenue collapsed by 55%.

Here are the numbers:

• Earnings of $1.47 a share, compared with $1.49 estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv
• Revenue of $12.99 billion, compared with the $13.3 billion estimate

The New York-based bank said profit of $2.63 billion, or $1.47 a share, fell 29% from a year earlier. Revenue of $12.99 billion dropped 12% from a year earlier, driven by the fall-off in investment banking and declines in investment management revenue.

Shares of the bank slumped 4.8%.

Investment banking revenue fell 55% to $1.28 billion in the quarter, essentially matching the estimate of analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Investment management revenue, however, dropped 20% to $1.17 billion, which was below the $1.29 billion estimate.

Morgan Stanley’s investment banking, trading and investment management operations are all impacted by the vagaries of the market, and the quarter was a choppy one.

Wall Street banks are grappling with the collapse in IPOs and debt and equity issuance this year, a sharp reversal from the deals boom that drove results last year. The slowdown was triggered by broad declines in financial assets, recession concerns and the Ukraine war.

Shares of the bank have dropped 19% this year through Thursday, holding up better than the 25% decline of the KBW Bank Index.

JPMorgan Chase, a rival to Morgan Stanley in Wall Street trading and advisory activities, posted results that topped expectations on strong interest income. Wells Fargo and Citigroup also posted mixed results Friday. Bank of America is scheduled to report on Monday, followed by Goldman Sachs on Tuesday.