Sifting through countless of stocks in the Capital Markets industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley

LPL Financial Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at institutions in the United States. The company’s brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance; and client cash programs consist of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured bank sweep vehicles, and a client cash and money market account. It also provides fee-based platforms that provide access to mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks, bonds, certain options strategies, unit investment trusts, institutional money managers, and no-load multi-manager variable annuities. In addition, the company offers retirement solutions for commission and fee-based services that allow advisors to provide brokerage services, consultation, and advice to retirement plan sponsors. Further, it provides other services comprising tools and services that enable advisors to maintain and grow their practices; trust, investment management oversight, and custodial services for estates and families; an advisor-facing trading and portfolio rebalancing platform; insurance brokerage general agency services; and technology products, including proposal generation, investment analytics, and portfolio modeling. The company was formerly known as LPL Investment Holdings Inc. and changed its name to LPL Financial Holdings Inc. in June 2012. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in San Diego, California.

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments. The company offers capital raising and financial advisory services, including services related to the underwriting of debt, equity securities, and other products, as well as advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and project finance. It also provides equity and fixed income products comprising sales, financing, prime brokerage, and market-making services; Asia wealth management; business-related investments services; originating corporate and commercial real estate loans, secured lending facilities, and extending securities-based and other financing; and research activities. In addition, the company offers financial advisor-led brokerage, investment advisory, custody, cash management, and administrative services; self-directed brokerage services; financial and wealth planning services; stock plan administration; securities-based lending, residential real estate loans, and other lending products; banking; and retirement plan services. Further, it provides equity, fixed income, alternatives and solutions, and liquidity and overlay services to benefit/defined contribution plans, foundations, endowments, government entities, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, third-party fund sponsors, corporations, and individuals. Morgan Stanley was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Latest Capital Markets and LPL Financial Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley Stock News

As of April 17, 2026, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. had a $25.5 billion market capitalization, compared to the Capital Markets median of $3.6 million. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 1.15% in the past year.

Currently, LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 29.1. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $16.6 billion with a 5.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 41.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $22.850 per share for the current fiscal year. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. currently has a 0.4% dividend yield.

Currently, Morgan Stanley’s price-earnings ratio is 18.5. Morgan Stanley’s trailing 12-month revenue is $70.3 billion with a 24.8% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 11.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $11.768 per share for the current fiscal year. Morgan Stanley currently has a 2.1% dividend yield.

How We Compare LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

Learn more about A+ Investor here!

Sign Up to Receive a Free Special Report Showing How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Smarter Investment Decisions

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D
Morgan Stanley	MS	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Value Score of 26, which is Expensive. Morgan Stanley has a Value Score of 44, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley is the better investment when it comes to value.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	C
Morgan Stanley	MS	D

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Quality Score of 42, which is Average. Morgan Stanley has a Quality Score of 26, which is Weak.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley is the better investment when it comes to quality.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D
Morgan Stanley	MS	B

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Momentum Score of 27, which is Weak. Morgan Stanley has a Momentum Score of 69, which is Strong.

The Momentum Grade Winner: Morgan Stanley

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, Morgan Stanley is considered to have stronger momentum compared to LPL Financial Holdings Inc.. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, Morgan Stanley could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley Grades

In addition to Momentum, Value and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. or Morgan Stanley Stock?

Overall, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. stock has a Value Score of 26, Momentum Score of 27 and Quality Score of 42.

Morgan Stanley stock has a Value Score of 44, Momentum Score of 69 and Quality Score of 26.

Comparing LPL Financial Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.