Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack certainly has something to smile about. His firm just reported earnings that more than doubled in the second quarter, far above expectations by analysts. Mack’s attack plan seems to be working. “Its’ good to see them getting their operations back in order,” Benjamin Wallace of Grimes & Co. told Bloomberg News. Fueling the spike, which saw share price climb to $1.86 (after 18 analysts predicted it would come in at $1.45), were trading and sales of commodities and a resurgence of its long-struggling brokerage unit. “I think Mack should be given an ‘A’ so far in terms of how he’s running the company,” analyst Richard Bove of Punk Ziegel & Co. said in a Bloomberg News interview. But before sticking a gold star on Mack, Bloomberg News also notes that among the five biggest Wall Street firms, Morgan Stanley stock growth pales compared with the others. MS share price has risen 8.7% since Mack returned, while it’s up 42% at Goldman Sachs Group, 22% at Merrill Lynch, 26% at Lehman Brothers Holdings and 27% at Bear Stearns.
