Morgan Stanley beats profit forecasts despite seeing the biggest stock-trading decline on Wall Street

• Morgan Stanley reported second-quarter financial results on Thursday before the opening bell.
• The bank beat Wall Street estimates for earnings per share and revenue.
• However, investment-banking and sales-and-trading revenues fell by double-digits from the same period last year. That included a 14% decline in its stock-trading segment.
• Watch Morgan Stanley trade live.

Morgan Stanley posted second quarter earnings on Thursday that surpassed Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings per share.

However, equities-trading revenue tumbled 14%, the worst of any major Wall Street bank. Overall sales-and-trading revenue dropped by 12% on a weaker quarter for Morgan Stanley's financing business and lower client balances.

Investment banking revenues fell by 13% from the same period last year due to fewer advisory deals and slower market volume.

Here are the key numbers:

• Revenue: $10.24 billion, versus $9.99 billion expected
• Net income: $2.2 billion, versus $1.94 billion expected
• Earnings per share: $1.23, versus $1.14 expected
• Equities-trading revenue:$2.13 billion versus $2.27 billion expected.
• Fixed-income-trading revenue: $1.13 billion versus $1.29 billion expected
• Net interest income: $1.03 billion versus $991.6 million expected.

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The firm's wealth management business posted a record pre-tax income of $1.2 billion on $4.4 billion in revenue.

"We reported solid quarterly results across all our businesses," James Gorman, the chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley said in a letter to shareholders. "Firmwide revenues were over $10 billion and we produced an ROE within our target range, demonstrating the stability of our franchise."

The bank also increased its dividend by $0.35 a share and announced it would buy back up $6 billion in stock by the second quarter of 2020.

Morgan Stanley was up 10% year-t0-date through Wednesday.

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