Value Investor
Start free

Morgan Stanley

MS on NYSE. Security brokers, dealers & flotation companies. Market value $298.7bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.

Should I look at this?

Good business, but not cheap right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See cheaper Financial services stocks on the list

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Return on equity
five annual reports to December 2025
13.2%five-year median

Yearly profit per dollar of owners' money: 13 cents. Above 10 is good.

Price to book
quarterly report to June 2026
2.6×

What you pay for each dollar of net assets: $2.58.

Earnings yield
past 12 months to June 2026
6.7%

Profit per $100 you pay: $6.72.

Quality score: 71 of 100. Price score: 52 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$191.02 a share, 26% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $151.84 to $232.25.

Expected to report results Wednesday 14 Oct, before the market opens.

Dividend: 2.2% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
20212022202320242025
Revenue
$59.8bn$53.7bn$54.1bn$61.8bn$70.6bn
Operating margin
n/an/an/an/an/a
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
1.69bn1.64bn1.61bn1.59bn1.57bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positiveDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Accounting checksDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • DebtDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 7.7% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 7% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $21.3 billion last quarter, up 27% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $5.6 billion, up 58% on a year ago.
  • 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$15.4bn
December 2024$16.2bn
March 2025$17.7bn
June 2025$16.8bn
September 2025$18.2bn
December 2025$17.9bn
March 2026$20.6bn
June 2026$21.3bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$3.2bn
December 2024$3.7bn
March 2025$4.3bn
June 2025$3.5bn
September 2025$4.6bn
December 2025$4.4bn
March 2026$5.6bn
June 2026$5.6bn

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
14 October 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
19 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
3 November 2026

Who owns it

18 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 17 last quarter. 2,730 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

2 investors own more than 5%.

  • 24.1%+0.2 pts
    Since 15 July 2026
    What they said

    On April 18, 2018, MUFG entered into a sales plan (the "Plan") with the Company and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC ("MS & Co.") to sell shares of Common Stock to the Company, through its agent MS & Co., as part of the Company's share repurchase program. The Plan was filed as Exhibit…

    Read the filing
  • 5.7%
    Since 31 March 2026
  • The Vanguard Group
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 13 March 2026

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 9 sold $68m.

  • SCHAPIRO MARY L
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    28 July 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $212.06
    Value
    $212,055
  • Pizzi Michael A.
    Head Technology & Operations
    Sold
    Date
    17 July 2026
    Shares
    24,165
    Price
    $215.55
    Value
    $5m
  • YESHAYA SHARON
    Chief Financial Officer
    Sold
    Date
    16 July 2026
    Shares
    15,554
    Price
    $222.51
    Value
    $3m
  • GROSSMAN ERIC F
    Chief Legal/Admin Officer
    Sold
    Date
    20 April 2026
    Shares
    11,118
    Price
    $190.75
    Value
    $2m
  • SIMKOWITZ DANIEL A
    Co-President
    Sold
    Date
    17 April 2026
    Shares
    14,690
    Price
    $189.24
    Value
    $3m
  • SAPERSTEIN ANDREW M
    Co-President
    Sold
    Date
    16 April 2026
    Shares
    51,668
    Price
    $188.60
    Value
    $10m
  • CRAWLEY MANDELL
    Chief Client Officer
    Sold
    Date
    16 April 2026
    Shares
    16,129
    Price
    $188.21
    Value
    $3m
  • SIMKOWITZ DANIEL A
    Co-President
    Sold
    Date
    30 January 2026
    Shares
    32,968
    Price
    $182.61
    Value
    $6m
  • YESHAYA SHARON
    Chief Financial Officer
    Sold
    Date
    20 January 2026
    Shares
    15,838
    Price
    $185.77
    Value
    $3m
  • SMITH CHARLES A
    Chief Risk Officer
    Sold
    Date
    20 January 2026
    Shares
    8,500
    Price
    $182.08
    Value
    $2m

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 19 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 4 Aug 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Create a free account to run it

Your first deep dive is free.

What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.