Morgan Stanley (MS)
Forward P/E is 14.09x against a peer median of 12.76x, a ratio of 1.10x — inside the fair range — with trailing P/E 14.93x and PEG 1.16. Latest-quarter revenue grew 27.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the cluster median, but the move to UNDERVALUED requires a ratio at or below about 0.95x, which is not met, so the label stays FAIRLY PRICED. Delivered demand check: the Investment banking & brokerage group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 24.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising.
What would change this label: The fair band is 11.48x to 14.67x (0.90x to 1.15x the peer median of 12.76x). Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to 11.48x or below at unchanged estimates with revenue growth holding at or above 24.0% year over year, the cluster median, and PEG at or below 1.2. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above 14.67x without a matching upgrade to growth, or if revenue growth falls well below 24.0% while the multiple stays above 14.67x.
Morgan Stanley is a major investment bank and wealth manager, and the shares trade at about 14 times next year's expected earnings, close to similar companies at about 13 times. Sales grew 27.1% in the latest quarter, a strong pace that supports that price. The shares look fairly priced — neither a bargain nor expensive.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Morgan Stanley returned +255.48% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Morgan Stanley: -35.2% (2022-02-09 to 2023-10-27). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 14.09x against a peer median of 12.76x, a ratio of 1.10x — inside the fair range — with trailing P/E 14.93x and PEG 1.16. Latest-quarter revenue grew 27.1% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the cluster median, but the move to UNDERVALUED requires a ratio at or below about 0.95x, which is not met, so the label stays FAIRLY PRICED. Delivered demand check: the Investment banking & brokerage group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 24.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 14.1× against a peer median of 12.8×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Investment banking & brokerage group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 24.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +27.1% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Stanley (MS) | $188.15 | 14.1× | 14.9× |
| GS | $920.00 | 12.8× | 13.2× |
| SCHW | $88.59 | 11.8× | 15.1× |
| HOOD | $91.14 | 33.0× | 42.0× |
| IBKR | $82.03 | 25.7× | 31.3× |
| RJF | $156.85 | 11.4× | 13.7× |
| Peer median | 12.8× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow by quarter is not shown for Morgan Stanley. Its SEC cash-flow facts do not separately tag spending on plant and equipment (normal for a bank), so a quarterly free-cash-flow figure cannot be built without estimating — and this programme does not estimate.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $21.3B | — | $5.6B | 3.46 | — |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $20.6B | — | $5.6B | 3.43 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $17.9B | — | $4.4B | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $18.2B | — | $4.6B | 2.80 | — |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $16.8B | — | $3.5B | 2.13 | — |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $17.7B | — | $4.3B | 2.60 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $16.2B | — | $3.7B | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $15.4B | — | $3.2B | 1.88 | — |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $15.0B | — | $3.1B | 1.82 | — |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $15.1B | — | $3.4B | 2.02 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $12.9B | — | $1.5B | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $13.3B | — | $2.4B | 1.38 | — |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | MORGAN STANLEY |
| Chief executive | Ted Pick (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Stanley) |
| Sector | Financials — Investment Banking & Brokerage — provides investment banking, wealth management and asset management services worldwide |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $188.15 |
| Market value (market cap) | $293.6B — share price times shares outstanding of 1,570,566,292 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $78.0B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $20.2B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | — |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +255.48% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -35.2% (2022-02-09 to 2023-10-27) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Free cash flow is absent for one or more quarters: either the filer does not separately tag PP&E purchases in its EDGAR cash-flow facts (common for banks), or — for a successor registrant's newest quarter — the cash-flow lines are year-to-date without the prior-quarter rung needed to difference them. Affected quarters are null in the data, never estimated.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000895421.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000895421.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/MS/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.