Orca Investment Management LLC Buys New Stake in Morgan Stanley $MS

Posted by Stanley Muller on Aug 18th, 2026

Orca Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 4,722 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $987,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,253,554,000 after buying an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,437,334,000 after acquiring an additional 539,544 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,786,350,000 after acquiring an additional 534,708 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,441,505,000 after acquiring an additional 524,189 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,686,881,000 after purchasing an additional 87,533 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on MS shares. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $243.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

Read Our Latest Report on Morgan Stanley

Trending Headlines about Morgan Stanley

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s strategists said earnings growth is broadening beyond mega-cap technology, favoring quality companies, AI adopters, large-cap financials and consumer discretionary stocks. The outlook supports sentiment toward Morgan Stanley’s own wealth-management and capital-markets businesses. Morgan Stanley Favours Quality, AI Adopters and Financials as Earnings Growth Broadens
Positive Sentiment: General Atlantic has revived plans for a potential IPO as soon as this year, with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley involved. A renewed IPO market could increase Morgan Stanley’s underwriting, advisory and trading revenue opportunities. General Atlantic Reignites IPO Plans With JPMorgan, Goldman and Morgan Stanley
Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley has reportedly increased exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products, signaling a deeper push into digital-asset offerings. The move could broaden products and fee revenue, although it also introduces additional market and regulatory risk. Morgan Stanley’s Bigger Crypto ETF Bet Might Change The Case For Investing in Morgan Stanley
Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley declared regular dividends on several preferred-stock series, payable in September and October. The payments reinforce the firm’s capital-return profile but do not directly change the outlook for common-stock earnings. Morgan Stanley preferred-stock dividend declarations
Negative Sentiment: The firm also completed roughly $7.54 million of senior unsecured medium-term note offerings with fixed coupons of 4.650% to 5.200%. The issuance supports liquidity and funding flexibility, but adds interest expense and leverage exposure. Morgan Stanley’s Bigger Crypto ETF Bet Might Change The Case For Investing in Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $218.63 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $216.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $193.33. The stock has a market cap of $344.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.67, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $141.03 and a 12 month high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

(Free Report)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.