LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Morgan Stanley posted a rise in third-quarter net income on Tuesday thanks to a solid performance from its wealth management business.
Overall net income rose to $1.8bn, or $0.93 per diluted share, from $1.6bn, or $0.81 in the same period a year ago. Analysts had been expecting earnings per share of $0.81.

Meanwhile, revenue for the quarter came in at $9.2bn from $8.9bn a year ago and the annualised return on average common equity was 9.6%.

In the wealth management division, revenue rose to $4.22bn from $3.88bn in the third quarter of 2016. However, sales and trading net revenues dropped to $2.9bn from $3.2bn a year ago.

MS said fixed income trading revenue fell to $1.2bn from $1.5bn a year ago, mostly driven by lower results in credit products and rates reflecting lower volatility and subdued activity in the current quarter. Equity sales and trading net revenues of $1.9bn were broadly unchanged from a year ago, reflecting higher results in the financing business offset by lower results in the execution services business driven by declines in derivatives.

Chairman and chief executive officer James P Gorman said: "Our third quarter results reflected the stability our wealth management, investment banking and investment management businesses bring when our sales and trading business faces a subdued environment.

"Our balanced business model and the consistent performance of our franchise enabled us to deliver solid returns for our shareholders."

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