Morgan Stanley posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue on Thursday that beat analyst expectations, excluding a charge related to the tax bill, as strong results in wealth management offset a big drop in fixed income trading revenue.

Here's how the banking giant fared against analyst estimates:

EPS: 84 cents per share vs. 77 cents expected by Thomson Reuters

Revenue: $9.5 billion vs. $9.2 billion expected

Wealth management: $4.41 billion vs. $4.32 billion expected by StreetAccount

Fixed income, commodities and currencies trading: $808 million vs. $1.05 billion expected

Equities trading: $1.9 billion vs. $1.85 billion expected

Wealth management revenue grew by 10.5 percent on a year-over-year basis, helping offset declines in the bank's trading revenue. Fixed income, commodities and currencies trading revenue decreased by 46 percent. Equities trading revenue fell 5 percent.

"Wealth management was not decent, it was great," CFO Jonathan Pruzan told CNBC. We feel "very good about momentum in the business. Flows are great."