Morse Asset Management Inc Increases Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Morse Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $461,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1,147.6% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 262 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 138.1% in the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. This trade represents a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. HSBC lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.67.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE MS opened at $129.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $120.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $107.05. The company has a market capitalization of $209.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.35. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $79.32 and a 12 month high of $136.24.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $15.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.