Morgan Stanley Upgraded to Buy by UBS With 18% Upside as Bank Stocks Sell Off

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) banal got a ballot of assurance this greeting from UBS (NYSE:UBS), which upgraded shares from Neutral to Buy with a terms people of $196. With Morgan Stanley shares trading astatine $166.55 arsenic of April 6, that people implies astir 18% upside from existent levels. UBS expert Erika Najarian sees the caller pullback arsenic an accidental alternatively than a informing sign.

The upgrade arrives arsenic slope stocks look wide selling unit tied to the Iran conflict, backstage recognition concerns, and AI disruption fears. Morgan Stanley shares are down 6.5% year-to-date, adjacent aft a 64% summation implicit the past year. The VIX presently sits astatine 23.87, reflecting elevated but not utmost marketplace anxiety.

Najarian's thesis centers connected Morgan Stanley's resilience amid marketplace headwinds, its past of embracing caller technologies, and its positioning to payment from banking assemblage deregulation. She argues the steadfast has "catalysts up to reignite" the shares, pointing specifically to spot successful advisory, the imaginable for blockbuster IPOs this year, and a wealthiness franchise that "leads peers." The upgrade is contrarian fixed the existent statement Hold standing crossed Wall Street.

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The firm's astir caller results backmost up that confidence. Morgan Stanley delivered full-year 2025 revenues of $70.6 cardinal and EPS of $10.21, with a instrumentality connected tangible communal equity of 21.6%. Investment Banking revenues surged 47% year-over-year successful Q4 2025, and full lawsuit assets reached $9.3 trillion.