diff --git a/frontend_tests/node_tests/util.js b/frontend_tests/node_tests/util.js
index cd3634d61f..58868cfbbe 100644
--- a/frontend_tests/node_tests/util.js
+++ b/frontend_tests/node_tests/util.js
@@ -25,6 +25,11 @@ var _ = global._;
 
 }());
 
+(function test_extract_pm_recipients() {
+    assert.equal(util.extract_pm_recipients('bob@foo.com, alice@foo.com').length, 2);
+    assert.equal(util.extract_pm_recipients('bob@foo.com, ').length, 1);
+}());
+
 (function test_lower_bound() {
     var arr = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50];
     assert.equal(util.lower_bound(arr, 5), 0);
diff --git a/static/js/echo.js b/static/js/echo.js
index 1e78bbd75d..e9fa05f38b 100644
--- a/static/js/echo.js
+++ b/static/js/echo.js
@@ -146,8 +146,11 @@ function insert_local_message(message_request, local_id) {
     if (message.type === 'stream') {
         message.display_recipient = message.stream;
     } else {
-        // Build a display recipient with the full names of each recipient
-        var emails = message_request.private_message_recipient.split(',');
+        // Build a display recipient with the full names of each
+        // recipient.  Note that it's important that use
+        // util.extract_pm_recipients, which filters out any spurious
+        // ", " at the end of the recipient list
+        var emails = util.extract_pm_recipients(message_request.private_message_recipient);
         message.display_recipient = _.map(emails, function (email) {
             email = email.trim();
             var person = people.get_by_email(email);
diff --git a/static/js/util.js b/static/js/util.js
index 0f00040338..972a9d0ae3 100644
--- a/static/js/util.js
+++ b/static/js/util.js
@@ -70,7 +70,9 @@ exports.is_pm_recipient = function (email, message) {
 };
 
 exports.extract_pm_recipients = function (recipients) {
-    return recipients.split(/\s*[,;]\s*/);
+    return _.filter(recipients.split(/\s*[,;]\s*/), function (recipient) {
+        return recipient.trim() !== "";
+    });
 };
 
 exports.same_major_recipient = function (a, b) {