Morgan Stanley’s annual investor meeting lasted 20 minutes, and no one asked any questions.
The gathering was notable only for its lack of excitement, and for the absence of one particular shareholder who always made the event more lively.
James P. Gorman, the firm’s chief executive, paid respects to Harry Korba, an investor that Morgan Stanley executives had come to know for his colorful questions and photographic memory of the firm’s financial statements.
Mr. Korba, whose powder-blue suits stood out each year, died in December. Addressing the bank’s chief executive, he would always make sure the audience knew he was asking questions “without any notes” when he cited specific line items on Morgan Stanley’s annual reports.
“Harry attended these meetings over many years, was a gracious and enthusiastic shareholder who hailed from the town of Yonkers, N.Y., and had an extraordinary facility for numbers and a great loyalty to our firm,” Mr. Gorman said at the end of the meeting.
The yearly investor gathering gives shareholders an opportunity to put a firm’s top executives on the spot, and often provides investors with their only chance to ask hard-hitting questions face to face.
At Bank of America‘s shareholder meeting last week, a woman complained to its chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, about the lack of handicapped parking at her local bank branch, and the fact that “you got a bonus and the stock price is terrible.”
The quiet, brief gathering at Morgan Stanley’s offices in Purchase, N.Y., was in sharp contrast to other bank meetings taking place this month.
On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley shareholders easily approved the company’s board of directors, its executive compensation plan and its auditor.
During his brief remarks, Mr. Gorman praised the firm for accomplishing a number of its strategic goals, including the completion of its acquisition of Smith Barney, the brokerage unit that has bolstered the firm’s wealth management operations as it continues to shift away from what it sees as riskier businesses like trading.
But Mr. Gorman also said the firm’s return on equity, a measure of profitability, was not “where we want it to be,” and would continue to be a point of focus. The firm reported R.O.E. of 5.1 percent for 2013.
Prompted by a question from a reporter, Mr. Gorman also affirmed plans to sell the bank’s physical oil trading unit to the large Russian firm Rosneft, despite the turbulence between Russia and Ukraine.
“We have a transaction pending with Rosneft, and we intend to close it,” Mr. Gorman said.