Morgan Stanley (MS) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Morgan Stanley (MS) closed at $43.73, marking a +1.46% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.3%. At the same time, the Dow 0%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.92%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the investment bank had gained 0.55% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's loss of 1.08% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.06% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from MS as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 17, 2019. On that day, MS is projected to report earnings of $1 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 19.05%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.59 billion, up 1% from the year-ago period.
MS's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.94 per share and revenue of $41.15 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +37.22% and +8.46%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MS. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. MS is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note MS's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.86. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.43, so we one might conclude that MS is trading at a discount comparatively.
Investors should also note that MS has a PEG ratio of 0.75 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. MS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.82 as of yesterday's close.
The Financial - Investment Bank industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 80, which puts it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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