MS · a US exchange · USD · Market cap $337.2B · 84,000 employees
Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
FAIL · Does not pass the screen
214.48 USD
At the last full screen 2026-07-24
Screened 2026-07-24 · the tape above runs as of 22:40 UTC · 24 Jul · two dates, stated on purpose · verdict and workings shown in full · never trimmed
The Label · The Season, Not the Day
This name holds its accumulation label.
Morgan Stanley holds its Accumulation at $214.48. The statistical read favours the buyers, held for 3 days.
As held on the ledger · 2026-07-24
Phase
Accumulation
Quantitative state
The statistical read favours the buyers, held for 3 days
Price at the screen
$214.48
Valuation
17.34 trailing · 15.80 forward price to earnings
Values screen
FAIL· score 10.0
Beta
1.22
The Workings
Five Screens, Shown in Full
Does not pass. Business activity screen
Test
Figure
Limit
What it means
Status
Business activity
Excluded
Core business clean
Business activity: Financials sector
Fail
Five checks adapted from AAOIFI screening standards: business activity plus four balance-sheet ratios. All five must pass for ethical clearance. Every figure is arithmetic on public accounts, not judgement.
The Conscience Overlay
Conscience flag · BDS Movement
The quantitative screen above is arithmetic. Separately, community boycott lists cite this company: Cited by BDS movement for investment links and financial services connected to Israeli government bonds and companies operating in settlements. The desk records that flag here without folding it into the verdict: the screen measures the balance sheet, the overlay informs the conscience, and they are different judgements that belong to different owners. The second one is yours.
What the Numbers Say It Is Worth
The Fair Value Range
Our framework reads AVOID: it trades at roughly a 4% discount to our $223.28 fair value, moderate competitive moat, 28.00% revenue growth.
Fair value range in USD, drawn from the 2026-07-24 screen. The gold marker is the market price at the same screen. A 4.1% margin of safety to the base estimate.
Third-party analyst targets: 21 covering, consensus Buy. The average target sits +13% from the screen price.
Reading the gap · Both our model and the analysts see meaningful upside from here.
Price History & Projections
Where it has been, where the models see it going. History from market close data; projection points are our fair-value estimates and third-party analyst targets, dated to the 2026-07-24 screen.
Fair value and rating are our own model estimates; the Street's range reflects third-party analyst estimates. Analysis, not advice.
The Business, in Plain Words
Wall Street giant fails the ethics test
Picture a banker in New York closing a deal that touches everything from oil projects to weapons contracts. Morgan Stanley sits at the centre of that flow, yet it trips our business activity screen on the first pass. That single failure overrides the rest of the story, so we pass.
Revenue is growing fast at 28 percent and margins sit at 26 percent, yet the shares trade only 3 percent below our fair value with a forward multiple of 16 times. Analyst targets sit higher still, but none of that moves the needle once the ethical screen is failed.
The moderate moat offers some protection in normal times, yet capital markets businesses remain exposed to sudden swings in deal flow and market sentiment. This is exactly what the screen is for.
The risks · The things to watch: it carries a real debt load, which raises the stakes if revenue slips.
Plain-English interpretation of our own screen data. Analysis, not advice.
Where & How to Trade
MS trades on a US exchange. As a listed security it is accessible through almost any international broker offering its home market. New to this, or investing from abroad? Our guide to accessing global markets covers brokers, currencies and the practical steps.
The Dated Journal · Newest First, Never Edited
Every Entry, As Written
2026-07-18Accumulation$211.93+0.0%Entry 4
The framework reads accumulation. Smart money appears to be quietly building positions. This typically precedes a markup phase. Price has moved down 0.0% since our last review. Ethical screening: FAIL. This security does not pass our values-based screening criteria. The risk-adjusted return profile shows excellent risk-adjusted returns. Our composite framework grades it A, carrying a low risk profile. Technically it is holding around 20% above its long-term trend line with momentum reading bullish. Over the past year the shares are up 61%. Our forward projection puts the odds of a 10% gain over the next month near 30%. The street (21 analysts) rates it buy, with a mean price target of $203.
2026-07-15Accumulation$211.93+0.0%Entry 3
The framework reads accumulation. Smart money appears to be quietly building positions. This typically precedes a markup phase. Price has moved down 0.0% since our last review. Ethical screening: FAIL. This security does not pass our values-based screening criteria. The risk-adjusted return profile shows excellent risk-adjusted returns. It reported earnings in this window, a natural checkpoint for the thesis.
2026-07-03Accumulation$211.93+0.0%Entry 2
The framework reads accumulation. Smart money appears to be quietly building positions. This typically precedes a markup phase. Price has moved down 0.0% since our last review. Ethical screening: FAIL. This security does not pass our values-based screening criteria. The risk-adjusted return profile shows excellent risk-adjusted returns.
2026-07-02Accumulation$211.93Entry 1
The framework reads accumulation. Smart money appears to be quietly building positions. This typically precedes a markup phase. Ethical screening: FAIL. This security does not pass our values-based screening criteria. The risk-adjusted return profile shows excellent risk-adjusted returns.
Each entry above was written on its date, before the outcome. A journal you can prune is not a journal.
