Morgan Stanley: Financial Loser

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Morgan Stanley (MS) was the loser among the largest U.S. financial names on Thursday, with shares pulling back 2.5% to close at $18.49.

The broad indexes were relatively flat after Greece initiated a bond swap as part of its second European bailout, through which investors took losses of over 50%, as part of a plan to reduce Greece's debt burden of 350 billion euro by 100 billion euro.

The The KBW Bank Index (I:BKX) was down 1% to close at 44.70, with 21 out of 24 index components seeing declines.

Morgan Stanley's shares have now returned 22.21% year-to-date following a 44% decline in 2011.

The shares now trade for 0.7 times the company's reported Dec. 30 tangible book value of $27.05 and for 10 times the consensus 2012 earnings estimate of $1.90 a share. The consensus 2013 EPS estimate is $2.36.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Guy Moszkowski sees short-term downside risk for Morgan Stanley investors, heading into the end of the Federal Reserve's latest round of stress tests on March 15.