Castle Wealth Management LLC Buys 171 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Castle Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,349 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 171 shares during the quarter. Castle Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $965,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MS. CGC Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 5,200.0% during the fourth quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. RVW Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 77.3% in the third quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 328 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 810.8% in the third quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on MS. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Cfra lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $87.00 price target (down previously from $94.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.90.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of MS stock traded up $0.40 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $90.66. 8,134,663 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,904,789. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89. The firm has a market cap of $147.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $88.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $84.92. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $69.42 and a fifty-two week high of $95.57.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 9.57%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 61.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.92, for a total transaction of $879,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 313,490 shares in the company, valued at $27,562,040.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.92, for a total value of $879,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 313,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,562,040.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.93, for a total value of $4,396,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 400,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,172,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 302,355 shares of company stock worth $26,753,102. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments.