Morgan Stanley (MS, Financial) will release its financial results for the third quarter before the New York Stock Exchange opens Oct. 17.
For the third quarter, analysts forecast Morgan Stanley will close the reporting period with an earnings per share (EPS) ranging between a low of 76 cents and a high of 86 cents.
Source: Yahoo Finance
The average EPS is 81 cents and it represents a slim 1.25% increase from the quarterly EPS of one year ago when the U.S.'s leading international financial services company closed the period with an EPS of 80 cents. A number of 22 analysts were surveyed on Morgan Stanley’s third-quarter earnings.
Concerning revenue, analysts forecast it will come in at $9.01 billion, which represents a mean of 19 analysts who were surveyed and a 1.20% growth from the comparable of last year.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Estimates on Morgan Stanley’s revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 range – as you can see in the chart above – between a low of $8.74 billion and a high of $9.28 billion.
For the period between full fiscal 2017 and full fiscal 2018, analysts forecast 14.4% growth in Morgan Stanley’s earnings while for the following five years they forecast that the U.S.'s leading international financial services company’s earnings will grow annually according to an average growth rate of 14.53%.
GuruFocus assigns Morgan Stanley a profitability and growth rating of 5 out of a total of 10.
Morgan Stanley closed the second quarter with $44.659 billion in cash on hand and securities, with long-term investments valued $684.147 billion or 81.34% of total assets and with total liabilities of $762.190 billion. Total stockholder equity amounted to $78.826 billion.
GuruFocus gives Morgan Stanley a financial strength rating of 4 out of 10.
Morgan Stanley is trading at $48.30 with a market capitalization of $88.71 billion. The stock has a price-book (P/B) ratio of 1.24, a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 13.84, a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 2.40 and a forward P/E ratio of 12.14 that, combined with a weighted (quarters) average figure of EPS for full fiscal years 2017 and 2018 of $3.86, yields to a value of $46.86 per share.
The company has a recommendation rating of 2.3 out of a total of 5 and an average target price of $50.96 per share. The latter figure is a mean of 24 analysts who were surveyed on Morgan Stanley’s target price. These estimates range between a low of $38 per share and a high of $61 per share.
Shares of Morgan Stanley have been downgrading on the New York Stock Exchange in the last five trading days, but the stock gained 14.32% year to date.
With reference to its earnings line updated with second-quarter figures, Morgan Stanley is undervalued by the stock market according to the Peter Lynch chart, as you can see in the chart below:
Third-quarter earnings will also tell if Morgan Stanley is still undervalued by the stock market for Peter Lynch.
Morgan Stanley distributes an annual dividend of $1 for a yield of 2.03% versus a Standard & Poor's 500 current dividend yield of 1.89%.
Disclosure: I have no positions in Morgan Stanley.
