392,200 Shares in Morgan Stanley $MS Purchased by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Sep 7th, 2026

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 392,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $81,985,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 143.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Atlatl Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the second quarter worth $28,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 55.7% during the second quarter. Hughes Financial Services LLC now owns 137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Purpose Unlimited Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

Positive Sentiment: Potentially major Anthropic IPO role: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are reportedly close to receiving leading roles in Anthropic’s anticipated IPO, which could involve a valuation near $2 trillion. The deal would strengthen Morgan Stanley’s technology and equity-underwriting franchise and provide a potentially meaningful source of fees and future business. Anthropic is also reportedly arranging a $15 billion revolving credit facility, with Morgan Stanley leading the process. Anthropic close to awarding Morgan Stanley and Goldman top roles in $2tn IPO
Positive Sentiment: Strong recent earnings backdrop: Morgan Stanley’s latest quarterly results significantly exceeded expectations, with revenue up 27.1% year over year and earnings per share of $3.46 versus a $2.89 consensus estimate. The performance supports investor confidence in the firm’s trading, investment-banking and wealth-management businesses.
Neutral Sentiment: Ongoing conference and client activity: Morgan Stanley is hosting its 24th Annual Global Healthcare Conference, while companies including Tempus, Attovia Therapeutics, Eaton and Southwest Airlines are scheduled to present. These events reinforce the firm’s role in institutional research and client engagement but are unlikely to materially affect near-term financial results. Tempus to Participate in the Morgan Stanley 24th Annual Global Healthcare Conference
Negative Sentiment: Copyright dispute with X: Morgan Stanley has filed complaints against at least 16 X posts that allegedly shared copyrighted research and temporarily locked a prominent strategist’s account. The action may protect valuable intellectual property, but it also creates reputational and legal uncertainty and could disrupt the firm’s visibility on a major platform used by investors. Morgan Stanley Hands Elon Musk a New X Headache

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MS. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Freedom Capital raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $224.75.

Read Our Latest Report on MS

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE:MS opened at $217.73 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $146.29 and a twelve month high of $232.25. The company has a market cap of $343.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $215.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.86. 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 (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.8 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were given a $1.15 dividend. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley 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.