Morgan Stanley's income rose 18 percent

NEW YORK - Investment bank Morgan Stanley said Thursday that its first-quarter income rose 18 percent from a year ago, helped by higher earnings in its trading and merger and acquisitions advisory businesses.

Morgan Stanley earned $1.4 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the same period a year ago. The figures exclude accounting adjustments related to the value of the bank's debt.

The earnings were equivalent to 68 cents per share. That easily beat the 61 cents per share analysts were expecting, according to FactSet, a financial data provider.

Revenue from continuing operations was $8.8 billion, ahead of the $8.5 billion analysts had expected.

All major segments of Morgan Stanley's business increased.

Institutional securities, the name of Morgan Stanley's trading, M&A advisory and stock sales division, grew the most. That division earned $1.2 billion versus $1.1 billion a year ago. The firm's fixed-income and commodities division reported a larger-than-expected rise in revenues this quarter: $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion a year ago.

Wealth management, which includes Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, had pretax income of $691 million versus $597 million a year ago.

The firm also announced it would buy back $1 billion of its own stock as well as increase its quarterly dividend to 10 cents per share. Morgan Stanley's stock rose $1.01, or 3.4 percent, to $30.80 in premarket trading.