You’ve definitely heard about the U.S. FANG stocks, but how about the European equivalent? While the stateside acronym is shorthand for Facebook FB, +0.19% Amazon.com AMZN, +0.49% Netflix NFLX, -0.36% and Alphabet’s Google GOOGL, +0.28% , the European counterpart reaches a bit further and comprises four whole countries: France, Austria, the Netherlands and Germany. Like the four highflying tech stocks in the U.S., equities in the European FANG countries have easily outperformed the wider stock markets this year. That means it’s time to scale back exposure to those markets, according to Morgan Stanley. In the Wall Street bank’s year-ahead outlook out on Monday, it advised to keep an underweight rating on the FANG group in 2018, noting that those four stock markets currently are the most expensive in Europe relative to the past 10 years. “It has nothing to do with the domestic political backdrop, but it’s just when I look at the market, those core countries have done extremely well. And actually, their earnings haven’t necessarily supported the share price moves, particularly in a country like France,” said Graham Secker, head of European and U.K. equity strategy at Morgan Stanley. And indeed, it’s been a stellar year for the European FANG countries. Austria’s ATX ATXEUR, +0.25% is up a whopping 27% in 2017 so far, while Germany’s DAX DAX, +0.28% is up 14%. The Netherlands’ AEX Index AEX, +1.10% has risen 12% and France’s CAC 40 index PX1, +0.44% is up 11% year-to-date. In comparison, the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, +0.42% is up only 6.7%. FactSet Europe’s “FANG” stocks.via