Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 16, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Ted Pick - CEO
Sharon Yeshaya - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Glenn Schorr - Evercore
Dan Fannon - Jefferies
Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America
Steven Chubak - Wolfe Research
Devin Ryan - JMP Securities
Christian Bolu - Autonomous Research
Brennan Hawken - UBS
Mike Mayo - Wells Fargo Securities
Operator
Good morning. On behalf of Morgan Stanley, I will begin the call with the following disclaimer. This call is being recorded. During today's presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplements, 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 and strategic updates. Within the strategic update, certain reported information has been adjusted as noted. These adjustments were made to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance. The reconciliations of these non-GAAP adjusted operating performance metrics are included in the notes to the presentation or the earnings release.
This presentation may not be duplicated or reproduced without our consent. I will now turn the call over to chief executive officer Ted Pick.
Ted Pick
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. It is a privilege to be with you.
Today, I will deliver the annual deck that was a hallmark of James Gorman's 14-year tenure, both to affirm Morgan Stanley's strategy and to provide a level of transparency on our progress that you have come to respect.
Let's turn to the slides. Turning first to Slide 3, over the last 15 years, we have transformed the firm's business mix, scale, profitability and returns. If you compare various historical periods, you can see our business evolution. Each period faced its own challenges. In 2009 to '14, Morgan Stanley was a classic self-help story. Transformation began with the acquisition and integration of Smith Barney. The investment bank was reset, and the firm survived the near triple credit downgrade and the euro crisis. In 2015 to '19, we weathered the years of financial repression, resizing our fixed income business and pressing ahead to the top slot in institutional equities.
During this period, we also acquired Solium, which was a step toward leadership in the corporate stock plan space. Then in 2020 to '22, the COVID years, we achieved incremental scale in both wealth and investment management with the acquisitions of E*TRADE and Eaton Vance, giving us a leading self-directed platform and pushing forward in investment solutions. During this period, each of the two major business lines -- wealth and investment management and institutional securities generated operating leverage and high returns.