Morgan Stanley Lays Off 5 People From London Equity Business
Morgan Stanley MS has supposedly fired five people from its equities sales and trading business in London. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
These cuts come after the company reported weak trading revenues in the first quarter. Its equity trading income fell 21%, which along with a 9% fall in fixed-income trading income led to the decline in trading revenues.
Moreover, underwriting revenues (both equity and fixed income) declined 22%, which was a negative for the company.
Per people familiar with the matter, Simon Mardel, Matthew Bubba, Tom Cooper, Robert Bloomer and Neil Taub are the ones who lost their jobs.
Simon Mardel joined Morgan Stanley in 2014 while Neil Taub arrived in 2010. Matthew Bubba started his career as an equity sales trader in 2008 and since then he has been part of the company. Similarly, Robert Bloomer has been in the company since pre-2001.
Notably, trading income, which is largely dependent on the overall performance of the capital markets, constitutes almost 35% of Morgan Stanley’s net revenues. While trading revenues declined in first-quarter 2019, solid client activity and rise in market volatility supported trading revenues in 2018.
Given the expectations of global economic slowdown and geopolitical tensions, markets are expected to remain volatile in the quarters ahead.
We believe that the company’s focus on the corporate lending unit along with steady loan growth, higher interest rates and normalized levels of trading activities will likely aid revenues, going forward.
Shares of Morgan Stanley have gained 3.1% over the past six months against 2.1% decline of the industry it belongs to.
Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the finance space are Cohen & Steers, Inc. CNS, BlackRock, Inc. BLK and Franklin Resources, Inc. BEN. All these stocks currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Over the past 60 days, Cohen & Steers witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision of 6.9% for 2019. Its share price has risen 40.1% over the past six months.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BlackRock’s current-year earnings has been revised 5.7% upward over the past 60 days. Its share price has increased 8.6% over the past six months.
Franklin Resources has witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision of 8.9% for fiscal 2019 over the past 60 days. Its share price has improved 3.5% over the past six months.
Today's Best Stocks from Zacks
Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2018, while the S&P 500 gained +15.8%, five of our screens returned +38.0%, +61.3%, +61.6%, +68.1%, and +98.3%.
This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2018, while the S&P averaged +4.8% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +56.2% per year.
See their latest picks free >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Morgan Stanley (MS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Cohen & Steers Inc (CNS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Franklin Resources, Inc. (BEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
