Morgan Stanley's (MS) CEO James Gorman on Q1 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS.PK) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 14, 2022 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

James Gorman - Chairman and CEO

Sharon Yeshaya - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Glenn Schorr - Evercore

Brennan Hawken - UBS

Dan Fannon - Jefferies

Steven Chubak - Wolfe Research

Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America

Mike Mayo - Wells Fargo

Gerard Cassidy - RBC Capital Markets

Jeremy Sigee - BNB Paribas

Devin Ryan - JMP Securities

Operator

Good morning. On behalf of Morgan Stanley, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. During today’s presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplement, copies of which are available at morganstanley.com.

Today’s presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures that appear in the earnings release. This presentation may not be duplicated or reproduced without our consent.

I will now turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James Gorman.

James Gorman

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I know you have a very, very busy morning, so we did our best to keep these earnings uncomplicated for you. Heading into 2022, we anticipate, as everybody did, a more volatile market, and obviously, we saw that in the first quarter.

The year started with rising inflationary pressures, accelerated expectations for tightening of monetary policy, and most notably, and sadly, the invasion of Ukraine. This backdrop injected significant uncertainty into the markets and further tested resiliency of our franchise.

Against this quickly evolving market environment, our diversified business model again generated high returns. The firm produced revenues of $14.8 billion and a ROTCE of 20%. I am pleased to report that our first quarter results continued to exemplify Morgan Stanley’s strength and affirm our long-term strategy.

First, Institutional Securities delivered another very strong quarter, with revenues of $7.7 billion, making it one of its highest performances ever. Compared to last year’s record first quarter, we saw a different mix of businesses driving the strength of this segment.

While underwriting was muted, Advisory was a highlight. Equity and fixed income again delivered exceptional results, particularly in Asia and Europe, as we supported our global clients amid a turbulent backdrop.