Morgan Stanley (MS) has had a good year. The bank’s shares closed near $205 on September 22, up around 13% for the year and giving the firm a market value of roughly $323 billion. The Wealth Management division keeps producing recurring fee income, and 2026 second-quarter revenue rose 28% from a year earlier.
Bank of America just told clients there is more to the case than the numbers show. In a research report shared with me, BofA Securities analyst Ebrahim Poonawala reiterated a Buy rating and a $250 price target on Morgan Stanley on September 20, implying about a 21% increase from the September 18 close of $202.58.
The note came after Poonawala, who covers U.S. banks for BofA, met with Andy Saperstein, Morgan Stanley’s Co-President and the executive who oversees every wealth channel at the firm. The conclusion was that Morgan Stanley owns a piece of the wealth business that competitors will struggle to copy, and the reason is a workplace platform many investors have never studied.
Inside the meeting that reinforced BofA’s $250 target
Poonawala’s meeting with Saperstein reinforced his view that Morgan Stanley can keep adding net new assets, which is the fresh client money flowing into the wealth business each quarter. That flow drives recurring fee income. According to a BofA Global Research report shared with me, the combination of the firm’s advisory business, workplace platform, and E*TRADE creates a client acquisition pipeline that competitors will find hard to replicate.
Saperstein has run the wealth management division for years. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2006, became head of U.S. wealth management after the Smith Barney deal in 2009, and was later named Co-President alongside Chairman and CEO Ted Pick.
Morgan Stanley makes money in three main ways. It advises wealthy clients and manages their assets, runs an institutional securities business covering trading and investment banking, and manages assets for retail and institutional investors.
The Carta partnership and EquityZen deal explained
The reason for BofA’s call centers around Morgan Stanley at Work, the division that handles employee equity plans, retirement services, and financial benefits inside large companies. Poonawala says the moat comes from owning the cap table infrastructure, which is the record of who owns how much of a company. The firm strengthened that position with its Carta partnership, first announced in October 2024 and expanded again in September 2025, according to a press release.
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The partnership made Morgan Stanley at Work the preferred equity management platform for late-stage private companies heading toward an IPO. When those companies eventually go public, their employees land inside Morgan Stanley’s ecosystem, giving the firm a pipeline of younger clients and future assets.
Morgan Stanley then confirmed the addition of EquityZen, a marketplace where employees of private companies can sell shares to accredited investors. The deal closed on January 27, 2026. Wealth Management head Jed Finn described the acquisition plainly. “Bringing down fees allows more clients to transact and build wealth in a frictionless, holistic way,” Finn said in a Morgan Stanley press release.
E*TRADE, international ambitions, and the risks worth watching
E*TRADE gives Morgan Stanley what BofA calls strategic growth optionality, including a path into digital assets. Morgan Stanley completed the rollout of spot crypto trading on E*TRADE in July 2026, letting clients buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through a Zerohash partnership. That places Morgan Stanley alongside the same self-directed traders who chase crypto exposure inside apps like Robinhood and Coinbase.
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Outside the United States, Saperstein signaled that Morgan Stanley is unlikely to chase a large deal. “If there was a great acquisition, we would’ve found it by now,” he told Poonawala, according to a BofA Global Research report shared with me. The plan is to grow overseas through partnerships, where Morgan Stanley supplies wealth and local institutions bring the clients.
Morgan Stanley shares remain sensitive to capital markets swings, and a slowdown in IPO activity or a sharp market correction would cut into fee income. The stock also trades close to a 52-week high of $232.25, leaving limited room for error if third-quarter results, due October 14, disappoint on net asset inflows.
What the $250 target could mean for MS stock investors
Poonawala said Morgan Stanley’s per-share profit growth should beat that of other big banks, due to strong wealth inflows and a busy period for trading and dealmaking. He also said a stock pullback would be a good time to buy more shares, because the workplace advantage he described should hold up well beyond any earnings report.
Morgan Stanley makes more of its money managing people’s wealth than from traditional banking. If you already own a financial sector ETF, adding Morgan Stanley stock on top of that gives you more exposure specifically to wealth management and capital markets.
If you want to bet directly on companies moving from private to public and the wealth business that follows them, MS is one of the more direct ways to do that. If you are new to investing, consider buying shares a little at a time instead of buying a large amount right before earnings are released on October 14.
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