Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Won't Meet 2011 Street Estimates Says Barclays

Even though some parts of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) performed fairly well in the latest quarter, Barclays said the Street estimates on Morgan is too high and needs to be lowered.

Barclays says, "In the quarter-to-quarter swings that see outperformances by MS and GS (Goldman (NYSE:GS)) over one another depending on market conditions and idiosyncratic factors, the 4Q has emerged in favor of MS, with better revenue comparisons (albeit still reflecting similar challenges) across the core institutional securities businesses. That said, despite modest upside to estimates (actual EPS upside mostly due to principal investment gains and tax benefits) and better relative comparisons in core revenues, we still believe that 2011 Street earnings estimates need to come down and note that MS's ROE was still only 5.4% in the 4Q. As such, we would not be inclined to chase strength in the shares in the short term."

Barclays maintains an "Equalweight" rating on Morgan Stanley (MS), which closed Friday at $30.01, gaining $0.99, or 3.41 percent. Barclays has a price target of $34 on MS.