Morgan Stanley's Results Improve

By Peter Rudegeair 

Morgan Stanley's first-quarter profit rose as the company, like its peers, benefited from a stronger environment for deals and trading.

The New York-based bank posted a first-quarter profit of $2.39 billion, compared with $1.51 billion in the same period of 2014. On a per-share basis, Morgan Stanley's profit was 85 cents when stripping out accounting adjustments. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 78 cents a share.

Revenue rose to $9.91 billion, or $9.78 billion excluding accounting adjustments. Analysts had projected $9.17 billion.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman has sought to reorient the bank away from unpredictable businesses such as bond trading to more consistent ones like wealth management. Mr. Gorman appeared to achieve success in 2014, though it was offset somewhat by a $2.6 billion settlement announced in February that resolved a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into mortgage bonds it sold in the run-up to the financial crisis.

Shares of Morgan Stanley have fallen 5.3% since the start of 2015 compared with a 2.1% fall in the KBW index of bank stocks over the same period.

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