Morgan Stanley took a $990 million charge in the quarter related to the U.S. tax overhaul. That was less than the $1.25 billion hit the company had warned was coming. It said its effective tax rate for this year will be 22 percent to 25 percent excluding one-time items, compared with 31 percent in 2017.
Here’s a summary of Morgan Stanley’s fourth-quarter results:
Net income fell 59 percent to $686 million, or 29 cents a share, from $1.67 billion, or 81 cents, a year earlier, the company said Thursday in a statement. Excluding the tax charge, profit was 84 cents a share, beating the 77-cent estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The full-year return on equity, a gauge of profitability, rose to 9.4 percent from 7.9 percent in 2016. Morgan Stanley said its new “medium-term” target for ROE was 10 percent to 13 percent. Gorman had targeted 9 percent to 11 percent for 2017. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 5.3 percent to $9.5 billion, compared with the $9.24 billion average estimate.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.