U.S. Movers: Morgan Stanley, United Airlines

Scott Peters
16 Oct, 2024
New York City

United Airlines rose 7.5% to $68.90 after the company announced a stock repurchase plan as part of its quarterly earnings update. 

The airline said it plans to buyback up to $1.5 billion of its stock and warrants originally issued to the U.S. Treasury, the first such purchase since before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the quarter, the company repurchased in the open market just over 2 million shares of its common stock in connection with the exercise of roughly 6.4 million warrants issued to the U.S. Treasury under the CARES Act and Payroll Support Program.

The company repurchased shares at an average price of $39.99. 

The repurchase of these shares eliminated the dilution associated with the warrants exercised and are separate from the new stock repurchase plan of $1.5 billion. 

Revenue in the third quarter increased 2.5% to $14.8 billion from $14.5 billion, net income declined 15.1% to $965 million, and diluted earnings per share dropped to $2.90 from $3.42 a year ago. 

Morgan Stanley increased 7.5% to $120.50 after the financial services company reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings in the third quarter. 

Revenue increased to $15.4 billion from $13.3 billion, net income advanced to $3.2 billion from $2.4 billion, and diluted earnings per share rose to $1.88 from $1.38 a year ago. 

Revenue in the institutional securities division increased to $6.8 billion from $5.7 billion, wealth management jumped to $7.2 billion from $6.4 billion, and investment management advanced to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion a year ago. 

The wealth management unit attracted $64 billion in new assets, increasing total client assets to $6 trillion. 

Investment management unit received a net long-term asset flow of $7 billion, and assets at the end of the quarter increased to $1.6 trillion.