Morgan Stanley would prefer to use its capital on acquisitions as opposed to stock repurchases, CFO Jonathan Pruzan said during an investor conference presentation.
Morgan Stanley has planned to continue buying back shares, and has been pursuing acquisitions. Ideally, it would like to keep both buying back shares and executing deals, Pruzan said.
"But to the degree we think there's a reasonable opportunity to invest in the business or invest in a new acquisition, we would prefer to do things like that than a share repurchase program," Pruzan said.
He added that Morgan Stanley wants to pursue acquisitions that grow the business and make it more stable. Recently, the company has been focused on acquisitions that boost fee-based revenue in the investment and wealth management areas.
In May, Morgan Stanley closed an $828.9 million transaction for Solium Capital Inc., which manages employee stock compensation for more than 3,000 companies. In 2018, Morgan Stanley added a commercial real estate credit platform to the investment management business with the acquisition of Mesa West Capital LLC.
With the recent acquisitions, Pruzan said Morgan Stanley had a previous relationship with the targets, and that gave the company greater assurance that the culture would fit. "The math has to work, and then as importantly, the culture has to work," he said.
