Morgan Stanley reports robust profit growth in first quarter

Morgan Stanley Thursday reported a 55 percent profit growth for the first quarter of 2014, helped by its strong performance in institutional securities and wealth management. The sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets reported net income applicable to the company of 1.45 billion U.S. dollars, or 74 cents per share, compared with 936 million dollars, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier. Morgan Stanley's net revenues reached 8.9 billion dollars in the first quarter, rising from 8.2 billion dollars of a year ago. Moreover, its income from continuing operations applicable to Morgan Stanley was 1.5 billion dollars, compared with income of 981 million dollars for the same period a year ago. "This quarter we generated higher year-over-year revenues in all three of our business segments, demonstrating the momentum we have built across the firm," said James Gorman, chairman and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley. According to Morgan Stanley's earnings report, net revenues from the departments of institutional securities, wealth management and investment management were 4.5 billion dollars, 3.6 billion dollars and 740 million dollars respectively. Gorman also announced Morgan Stanley will commence a further share repurchase of up to 1 billion dollars and double its dividend this year. Morgan Stanley's shares rose more than 4 percent to trade around 31.1 dollars about one hour after the opening bell.