24/7 Wall St. » MS

Tableau Software: Big Data IPO Goes out Above Expected Range, Shares Spike Higher

Paul Ausick — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:45:19 +0000

Seattle-based software maker Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) begins trading today following an initial public offering (IPO) of 8.2 million shares at a price of $31 a share. The offering is valued at around $254 million.

Lead underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

The company yesterday boosted the number of shares on offer by 1.15 million, including the underwriters’ overallotment of 150,000 shares. The original filing called for the sale of 7.2 million shares, not including the underwriters’ option on an additional 1.08 million shares. The expected price range had been $28 to $30 a share, but strong demand led to the larger volume and higher price.

Tableau offers a cloud-based data analytics product that allows users to display and query large data sets using a visual query language and a graphical interface. “Big data,” as it is called, has become a very hot corner of the tech sector, and Tableau’s IPO could not have been timed better. The company lists among its customers Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD), the Federal Aviation Administration and Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD).

The company’s revenues have grown from $34.2 million in 2010 to $127.7 million last year. In the first three months of 2013, Tableau posted revenues of $40 million.

If Yahoo! Finance and The Wall Street Journal are to be believed, Tableau’s shares opened at $44 this morning and have risen to nearly $50 in the first hour of trading. Can the underwriters have left this much money on the table?

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, IPOs, Software Tagged: DATA, DD, DE, featured, GS, MS, SHLD

Softbank Using Alibaba IPO to Thwart Dish Network Offer for Sprint

Paul Ausick — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:10:50 +0000

The saying is that all’s fair in love and war. Well, this cannot be love, so it must be war.

The Financial Times this morning is citing “two people familiar with the situation” who say that Softbank, which owns about one-third of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been telling investment bankers that if they want a piece of Alibaba’s coming initial public offering (IPO), the banks had better pass on helping fund an offer from Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Softbank’s $20.1 billion offer for Sprint has been topped by an offer of $25.5 billion from Dish.

Alibaba’s IPO is the hottest thing on Wall Street since the IPO of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). The IPO is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year at a valuation in the neighborhood of $60 billion to $80 billion. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) sold about half of its 40% stake in Alibaba back to the Chinese firm late last year for total consideration of about $7.6 billion. That placed a valuation of around $40 billion on Alibaba.

A consortium of nine banks, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB), HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) recently refinanced $8 billion in Alibaba debt at lower interest, and the nine are believed to have the inside track on the coming IPO.

How credible is a threat from Softbank to withhold the IPO from banks that cooperate with Dish? Investment banks are almost desperate for profitable Asian business and Softbank’s message is pretty clear, even if the Japanese company has not said as much directly. But even though Softbank owns a big chunk of Alibaba, the Japanese probably cannot tell the Chinese which banks to use. The banks will get the message without having to be told.

Filed under: Banking & Finance, China, Internet, IPOs, Satellite, Technology Companies Tagged: C, CS, DB, DISH, FB, featured, HBC, JPM, MS, S, YHOO

TARP Payback Scorecard

Paul Ausick — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:35:16 +0000

Following the financial crisis of 2008, the U.S. Treasury was authorized to commit up to $700 billion to a Troubled Asset Relief Program — TARP — in an effort to stop the bleeding in the U.S. economy. All told, U.S. taxpayers committed $456.56 billion to the various parts of the program, and as of yesterday, have collected $414.27 billion in repayments.

Yesterday’s announcement that Fannie Mae would repay $59.4 billion in bailout funds spiked our interest in how the TARP payback is going. Here is what we have found.

The Capital Purchase Program was the largest of the TARP programs, paying out $250.46 billion to 707 financial institutions. The total amount repaid so far comes to $270.81 billion. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) took TARP funds of $45 billion and fully repaid the funds in early 2010. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) paid back TARP loans of $20 billion and $25 billion, respectively, in early 2010 as well. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) repaid $25 billion in the summer of 2009, and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) repaid $10 billion each at the same time.

In addition to these repayments, the Treasury received dividend payments of nearly $12 billion on from the Capital Purchase Program, some $9.4 billion from banks with assets greater than $10 billion.

Smaller banks received $14.57 billion in TARP funds and have repaid $12.13 billion so far, including $1.63 billion in dividends.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) received $67.84 billion in TARP funds and has repaid $55.31 billion to date, include $640 million dividends.

The U.S. auto industry received a total of $79.69 billion. Chrysler Group received $12.37 billion and has repaid $11.13 billion to date, including $1.13 billion in interest. General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) received $51.03 billion and has so far repaid $31.1 billion, including $770 million in interest. Ally Financial, formerly GMAC, received $16.29 billion and has repaid $5.94 billion, including $3.27 billion in dividends. As a group, the automakers and Ally have repaid $48.17 billion of the original bailout funds.

The out-of-pocket cost to taxpayers as of yesterday totaled $42.29 billion, and collections are continuing. That’s not exactly chump change, but in late 2008 no one would have dared predict that TARP would end up costing that little.

See the U.S. Treasury’s daily report.

Filed under: Autos, Banking & Finance, Economy Tagged: AIG, BAC, C, featured, GM, GS, JPM, MS, WFC

Investment by Individuals Stumbles

Douglas A. McIntyre — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:02:22 +0000

The improvement in stock prices has done nothing to bring the investment in equities by individuals higher at all. As a matter of fact, participation in stock ownership has fallen. Either these investors worry the market has topped, of they believe institutional investors have advantages as they trade to create profits based on information that is not widely available to the pubic — if it is available at all.

A new Gallup poll on stock ownership shows:

Despite strong gains in the stock market over the past year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s reaching record highs in the past month, stock ownership among U.S. adults is at its lowest level in Gallup trends since 1998, essentially unchanged from a year ago. Just over half of Americans, 52%, now say they personally, or jointly with a spouse, own stock outright or as part of a mutual fund or self-directed retirement account.

Gallup’s conclusion about the data is that unemployment is a major cause of low participation. However, the public perception of whether the markets are fair likely has a greater effect.

Individual investors need only look to the news to find that certain professional investors have inside tracks on the market, whether or not these are legal. The stories of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) director Rajat Gupta being convicted of security fraud has to undermine confidence in whether the markets are fair. So does the news of “flash crashes” and firms that can trade shares electronically in a matter of less than a second. For an individual investor, a stock purchase can take seconds or even minutes.

Another cause for suspicion about whether the markets are set against individuals is the availability of stock research from large firms that is given to huge customers who trade with them frequently. The Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) initial public offering (IPO) debacle left some investors questioning how many shares they held and at what prices in the hours after trading in the social network began. Shortly thereafter, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was fined for giving certain investors access to estimates that Facebook revenue might be lower than expected. Obviously, individual investors burned financially by the Facebook IPO process had no such access.

Individual investors have cause to stay on the sidelines. Their impression that the markets are not fair is sometime correct.

Methodology: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted April 4 to 14, 2013, with a random sample of 2,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Research Tagged: FB, featured, GS, MS

Media Digest (4/30/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg

Douglas A. McIntyre — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:21:07 +0000

Softbank signals it will not increase its bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). (Reuters)

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will dump its Europe presence via selling its stake in Carphone. (Reuters)

Trading profits help UBS A.G.’s (NYSE: UBS) first-quarter numbers. (Reuters)

EBay Inc.’s (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal is unable to get Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) to be a client. (Reuters)

Eastman Kodak to give its camera film business to U.K. pensions to cover its obligations to them. (WSJ)

Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) will raise $3.65 billion in new capital. (WSJ)

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) to start to research online TV viewership. (WSJ)

Chrysler profits fall by two-thirds on falling sales and work to introduce new models. (WSJ)

After a board and investor battle, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) will keep CEO Steve Chazen through 2014. (WSJ)

S&P, Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) agree to a $225 million settlement about misstating the value of certain mortgage instruments. (WSJ)

Corn prices rise 6.2% on fear that planting in the Midwest could be delayed or cancelled. (WSJ)

A sharp drop in sales in Volkwagen’s core market — Europe — damages its fortunes. (NYT)

BP PLC’s (NYSE: BP) earnings forecast exceeds Wall Street estimates. (FT)

A research firm says the Samsung Galaxy S4 breaks more easily than the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5. (Bloomberg)

Tech upgrades of telecom infrastructure in Europe could force 300,000 workers out of jobs. (Bloomberg)

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, BP, DB, EBAY, MCO, MS, NLSN, OXY, S, UBS, WMT

Fitch Warns About Bank Earnings for the Rest of 2013

Jon C. Ogg — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:18:15 +0000

Is it possible that the great big bank stock rally is already done? Shortly before the closing bell on Tuesday came words of warning from Fitch Ratings that the U.S. banking sector’s improved results in the first quarter were going to difficult to sustain for the rest of 2013. We just recently highlighted some of the risks of this in our “Sell in May and Go Away” primer and blueprint for 2013 and this goes well beyond the bank sector risks. Fitch’s warnings go many steps further and the result is that unless bank stocks correct further then the share prices will be very hard to maintain.

Some of the issues are very focused for investors. Fitch showed that overall revenues broadly fell for the large U.S. banks even though net income improved on a linked-quarter basis. Lower provision expenses and cost controls managed to mitigate poor revenue figures. While expected, Fitch also said that a decline in mortgage refinancing activities managed to helped bank earnings. Fitch did signal that it now expects mortgage revenues to decline throughout the banking sector in 2013 due to lower refinancing activities. Here were some additional points made:

top five U.S. banks showed capital market activity aggregate revenues were 7% below a strong first quarter 2012, but were up 36% above the seasonally weaker fourth quarter in 2012. Capital markets were also shown to be a key contributor to overall revenues for the top five at 35% of consolidated revenues. Fixed income, currencies, and commodities activity were the largest segments of the capital markets.

Additional concerns were brought up around the balance of accruing troubled debt restructurings on balance sheets. The legal and regulatory costs also remain elevated. We would add to what Fitch said here by pointing out that Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) warned in his most recent annual letter to shareholders that more regulatory actions against the banks (or his bank) would be coming down the pipe.

Fitch even said, “Earnings for U.S. banks generally improved during the first quarter although these levels will be difficult to sustain over the remainder of 2013… The first quarter is generally the strongest period, and the industry still faces unpredictability on capital markets revenues and earnings.”

We did note in our own analyst upgrades and downgrades this morning that there were two dissenting upgrades which may take a 180-degree turn from Fitch’s note. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and its target price was raised to $16 from $13 by the analyst team at Morgan Stanley. We also saw that Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Banking & Finance Tagged: BAC, featured, JPM, MS

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — April 23, 2013: Flash Crash Has No Impact on Rising Stocks

Paul Ausick — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:07:07 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning despite low flash PMI readings from the eurozone. Germany’s manufacturing PMI reading was especially notable, falling to 47.9 from 49, and the country’s services PMI fell as well (more coverage here). In Asia, China’s flash manufacturing PMI fell from 51.60 last month to 50.50, which was worse than expected (more coverage here). In the U.S., the flash PMI reading fell from 54.6 to 52, which is still positive, but barely (more coverage here). U.S. house prices rose in February (more coverage here) and new home sales were also up after a drop in January (more coverage here). An afternoon “flash crash” followed a false report of an explosion at the White House caused by a hacker attack on the AP Twitter feed.

The U.S. dollar index is trading up 0.43% today, now at 83.032. The GSCI commodity index is flat at 609.10. WTI crude oil closed flat today, at $89.18 a barrel on the June futures contract. Brent crude trades down 0.1% at $100.26 a barrel. Natural gas is down 0.8% today at about $4.23 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.9% today at $1,408.80 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 152 points to 14,719.53 (1.05%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 36 points (1.11%) to 3,269.33, and the S&P 500 rose 1.04% or more than 16 points to 1,578.78.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch; Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) raised to ‘overweight’ with a price target of $100 at J.P. Morgan; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys; and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at Argus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 24.9% at $217.81 after posting a new 52-week high of $219.38 earlier today (more coverage here); Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) is down 1.5% at $53.22; Stillwater Mining Co. (NYSE: SWC) is up 1.2% at $10.99; Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is up 2.5% at $35.67 after posting a new 52-week high of $36.23 earlier today (more coverage here); AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) is up 0.5% at $2.94; Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is up 10.5% at $55.88; Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is down 5.2% at $19.94; Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is up 1.5% at $97.24 after posting a new 52-week high of $99.49 earlier today (more coverage here); and RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is up 2.1% at $3.21 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW), Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR), Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is up 9.8% at $16.62. The air lines reported decent earnings today, but is forecasting lower fuel costs going forward. More coverage here.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is up 5.2% at $40.60. The insurer won a lawsuit dismissal in California today.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) is down 5.9% at $4.60. The coal miner’s quarterly report came in as poorly as expected and its outlook is now particularly strong. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
1:00 p.m. – 5-year note auction

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, ABX, ACI, AIG, AKS, BRCM, CAT, COH, DAL, EW, F, GCI, GE, GILD, GLW, JNPR, LMT, MS, PG, RATE, RSH, S, SWC, T, TXN, VMW, YUM

Top Wall Street Analyst Upgrades and Positive Views

Jon C. Ogg — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:30:15 +0000

Investors and traders are on the lookout for fresh research ideas from Wall St. that will lead to higher income or more profits. 24/7 Wall St. reviews many fresh research calls to find great ideas from value stocks to growth stocks to dividend stocks. We are breaking out the positive analyst calls as far as stocks to buy and positive research calls today.

These are some of this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall St. today.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and its target price was raised to $16 from $13 at Morgan Stanley.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the target price was raised to $100 from $93 at J.P. Morgan.

Conn’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) was named as Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was reiterated as Buy with a $25 price target by Argus, with the explanation that the two-day sell-off is a great buying opportunity.

Informatica Corp. (NASDAQ: INFA) was raised to Neutral based on new orders and backlog from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) was reiterated Buy but raised price target to $116 from $98 based on 20-times earnings at Argus.

MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) was raised to Hold from Sell by S&P Capital IQ late on Monday.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) was raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer and maintained as Buy with $48 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

Filed under: Active Trader, Analyst Calls, Value Investing Tagged: BAC, CAT, CONN, GE, INFA, KMB, MBI, MS, MT, SAN, VECO

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — April 18, 2013: Markets Cool on Jobs, Manufacturing Data

Paul Ausick — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:05:32 +0000

U.S. equity markets opened slightly higher this morning following the report on U.S. jobless numbers (more coverage here). In Europe, the only data out today showed that U.K. retail sales fell 0.7%, slightly better than expected. In Asia, house prices in China gained 3.6% in March, pushing Shanghai to a higher close. In the U.S., the leading indicators came in lower than expected (more coverage here) and the Philly Fed index posted a surprisingly low number (more coverage here). The lower open this morning simply continued sliding until the last hour of trading.

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.14% today, now at 82.563. The GSCI commodity index is down 1.5% at 600.97. WTI crude oil closed up 1.2% today, at $XX a barrel. Brent crude trades 1.77% at $100.39 a barrel. Natural gas is up 4.8% today at about $4.40 per million BTUs, after the weekly storage report showed a smaller-than-expected build in inventories (more coverage here). Gold settled up 0.7% today at $1,392.50 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 79 points to 14,539.14 (-0.54%), the NASDAQ fell more than 38 points (-1.20%) to 3,166.36, and the S&P 500 fell -0.67% or more than 10 points to 1,541.63.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Qiagen NV (NASDAQ: QGEN) started as ‘sell’ at Citigroup; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) started as ‘overweight’ at HSBC; HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch; American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) started as ‘outperform’ with a price target of $50 at BMO Capital Markets; and FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) cut to ‘underperform’ at RBC Capital Markets.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is up 1.7% at $65.20 (more coverage here); SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) is down 6.7% at $52.00 (more coverage here); eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is down 5.6% at $52.98 (more coverage here); Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) is up 0.4% at $37.95 (more coverage here); AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) is up 1.7% at $43.22 (more coverage here); Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) is up 0.3% at $28.09; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is down 4.7% at $20.47 (more coverage here); Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) is down 0.4% at $XX; Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) is up 8.2% at $20.58 (more coal coverage here); PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is up 2.8% at $81.08 after posting a new 52-week high of $83.44 earlier today (more coverage here); Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) is down 2.5% at $91.65 (more coverage here); and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is up 3% at $51.01 after posting a new 52-week high of $51.67 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Rockwell Collins Inc. (NYSE: COL), and Schlumberger NV (NYSE: SLB).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is down 12.6% at $3.13. The mobile phone maker posted weak first quarter results. There’s no mercy in the markets. More coverage here.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) is up 6.2% at $2.39. The drug store chain accepted the resignation of board member Jean Coutu, who has been reducing his group’s stake in the company. More coverage here.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 2.7% at $392.06. The tech giant’s shares will close below $400 for the first time in more than a year.

Stay tuned for Friday. Fed Governor Jeremy Stein is giving a speech. There are no other events on tomorrow’s schedule.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AAPL, AIG, AMD, AN, AXP, BTU, CMG, COF, COL, EBAY, ETFC, FCX, FDX, GE, GOOG, HFC, HON, IBM, KMI, MCD, MS, NOK, NUE, PEP, PM, POT, QGEN, RAD, SLB, SNDK, VZ

Morgan Stanley Results Not So Hot, but Better Than Last Year

Paul Ausick — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:05:48 +0000

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported first-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. The bank reported adjusted diluted quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 on revenues of $8.2 billion. In the same period a year ago, Morgan Stanley reported an adjusted EPS loss of $0.05 on revenues of $6.9 billion. First-quarter results also compare to the consensus estimates for EPS of $0.57 on revenues of $8.35 billion.

Excluding adjustments for debt valuation, the bank’s revenues totaled $8.9 billion and EPS totaled $0.61. The adjustment for debt valuation totaled $317 million in the quarter, compared with a $2 billion adjustment in the first quarter of 2012.

The bank’s CEO said:

Morgan Stanley demonstrated solid momentum across the Firm this quarter, consistent with the strategic objectives we laid out at the beginning of the year. … Looking forward, while the global environment continues to have moments of fragility, we believe the broad economic outlook for the next several years is stronger than in the recent past.

The bank said its Basel I Tier 1 capital ratio is about 13.9% and its Tier 1 common ratio is about 11.5%.

Morgan Stanley had no comments in its release regarding guidance. The consensus estimates for the second quarter calls for EPS of $0.51 on revenues of $8.03 billion. For the full year, EPS is expected to total $2.09 on revenues of $32.32 billion.

Shares are down about 1% in premarket trading this morning, at $21.25 in a 52-week range of $12.26 to $24.47. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $23.90 before today’s results were announced.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Earnings, Financial Stocks Tagged: MS