For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Morgan Stanley (MS) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MS for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Morgan Stanley's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Morgan Stanley's main business drivers.
Founded in 1935 and incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in 1981, Morgan Stanley is the leading financial services holding company headquartered in New York. With 80,205 employees, the company serves a diversified group of clients and customers — including corporations, governments, financial institutions and individuals — through offices across 41 countries.
The company’s business is divided into three segments:
The Institutional Securities ("IS") segment (contributing 42.6% of total net revenues in 2023) includes capital raising; financial advisory services that include advices on mergers and acquisitions (M&As), restructurings, real estate and project finance; corporate lending; sales, trading, financing and market-making activities in equity and fixed income securities and related products, including foreign exchange and commodities; benchmark indices and risk management analytics; and investment activities.
The Wealth Management ("WM") segment (48.5%) provides brokerage and investment advisory services covering various investment alternatives; financial and wealth planning services; annuity and other insurance products; credit and other lending products; cash management services; retirement services; and trust and fiduciary services and engages in fixed income principal trading.
The Investment Management ("IM") segment (8.9%) provides global asset management products and services in equity, fixed income, alternative investments that include hedge funds and funds of funds, and merchant banking including real estate, private equity and infrastructure, to institutional and retail clients through proprietary and third-party distribution channels. The segment also engages in investment.
In 2019, Morgan Stanley acquired Canada-based Solium Capital Inc. and renamed it as Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. In 2020, the company acquired E*Trade Financial. In 2021, it acquired Eaton Vance.
Bottom Line
Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Morgan Stanley, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in January 2015 would be worth $3,775.30, or a 277.53% gain, as of January 16, 2025. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 198.59% and gold's return of 110.97% over the same time frame.
Analysts are anticipating more upside for MS.
Morgan Stanley’s shares have outperformed the industry in the past six months. The resurgence of the investment banking (IB) business and a solid deal-making pipeline are expected to support its financials. We project IB fees to jump 31% in 2024. Also, the company’s efforts to become less dependent on capital market-driven revenues, inorganic expansion/strategic alliance and relatively high rates will support top-line growth. We expect total revenues to witness a CAGR of 6.3% by 2026. Yet, expenses are likely to stay elevated on business expansion efforts. We project total non-interest expenses to rise 4.6% in 2024. The ambiguity of the performance of the capital markets is worrisome and might hurt the trading business’ prospects. Though trading revenues are likely to rise going forward, they are not likely to reach 2021 levels soon.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
