Morgan Stanley (MS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Morgan Stanley (MS) closed at $88.38 in the most recent trading session, up 0.86 percent from the previous day.

The stock trailed the S&P 500's 1.86 percent daily gain.

In other news, the Dow rose 1.79 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent.

Shares of the investment bank had fallen 15.7 percent in the previous month, trailing the Finance sector's loss of 5.32 percent and the S&P 500's loss of 5.05 percent.

Investors will be hoping for Morgan Stanley to show strength as it approaches its next earnings release, which is scheduled for April 14, 2022. Analysts expect Morgan Stanley to earn $1.95 per share, according to the report. This would represent a 12.16 percent decrease year on year. Our most recent consensus forecast calls for quarterly revenue of $15.37 billion, a 2.24 percent decrease from the previous year.

Our Zacks Consensus Estimates for the full year project earnings of $7.70 per share and revenue of $59.42 billion, representing changes of -6.33 percent and -0.57 percent, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors may also notice recent changes in Morgan Stanley analyst estimates. Recent revisions typically reflect the most recent near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as an indication of optimism about the company's business prospects.

According to research, these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term share price momentum. To capitalize on this, we created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that considers these estimate changes and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranks stocks from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating a +25 percent average annual return since 1988. Our consensus EPS projection has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Morgan Stanley currently has a Zacks Rank of #2. (Buy).

Morgan Stanley is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 11.39. In comparison, the Forward P/E of its industry is 10.2, implying that Morgan Stanley is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that MS has a current PEG ratio of 2.01. This metric is similar to the well-known P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of yesterday's close, the Financial - Investment Bank industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.74.

The Finance sector includes the Financial - Investment Bank industry. This industry has a Zacks Industry Rank of 47, which places it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank measures the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within our industry groups to determine the strength of our industry groups. According to our research, the top half of rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.