Merrill Lynch vs. Morgan Stanley: Who Had a Better Q1?

Average yearly production was $1.12 million in Q1’18 for Morgan Stanley (an 8% jump from Q1’17)  vs. $1.04 million at Merrill Lynch.

Veteran members of Merrill’s Thundering Herd, though, have average 12-month trailing production of $1.36 million as of March 31, 2018, up 6% from the year-ago quarter.

Which firm is better in terms of total revenues, net income and profit margins?

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management had sales of $4.7 billion in Q1’18, a jump of 8% from Q1’17. Merrill Lynch’s first-quarter revenue was $4.0 billion, while BofA Global Wealth reported total sales of $4.9 billion.

Pretax net income was $1.16 billion at Morgan Stanley vs. $1.39 billion for the BofA wealth group. (Merrill Lynch’s specific net income figures are not released by Bank of America.)

Morgan Stanley’s post-tax profits in wealth management were $914 million (up 41% year over year), while the BofA wealth group’s post-tax profits were $1.04 billion (a 34% year-over-year jump).

How about asset flows and loans?

Morgan Stanley, which reports only its fee-based flows, said these incoming assets were $18.2 billion in Q1’18, with loans totaling $80 billion.

Bank of America’s wealth group had total asset flows of $24 billion for the quarter. Its average loan balances were about $160 billion.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

• Gorman Tempers Euphoria After Morgan Stanley’s Record Quarter
• Bank of America’s Cost-Cutting Drive Pushes Profit to Record