Morgan Stanley beats expectations with Q3 results

Morgan Stanley beat analysts' forecasts for its third quarter.

The company said diluted earnings per share were $0.81 on revenue of $8.91bn. Analysts had estimated $0.63 for revenue of $8.17bn.

In the same period in 2015, Morgan Stanley reported revenue of $7.8bn and EPS of 48 cents.

The New York-based firm reported a profit of $1.6bn, with CEO James Gorman appearing to have the company back on track following some lacklustre reports due to slow trading activity and losses from its Asia operations.

Morgan said the earnings report reflects "steady progress" on the lender's business.

"This quarter we saw record revenues in Wealth Management and a strong performance in our Sales and Trading business," Morgan said in a statement.

"While the environment was more challenging for our equity underwriting and asset management businesses, our expense initiatives remain on track. Overall the results reflect steady progress against our long term strategic goals," he added.

The results continue an impressive run of results for some of the biggest US banks and financial services firms, including the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Morgan Stanley's share price was up 0.7 percent at $32.55 in premarket trading.