Waverly Advisors LLC Sells 2,706 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Posted by Francis Steltz on Sep 9th, 2026

Waverly Advisors LLC cut its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 109,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,706 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $22,961,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 69.0% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 8,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,263,000 after acquiring an additional 3,661 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 90.9% during the 2nd quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,378,000 after purchasing an additional 7,688 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 6.3% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 263,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,127,000 after buying an additional 15,623 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,805,000 after purchasing an additional 3,807 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley News Summary

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

Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is reportedly near the top of the list for a leading role in a potential $2 trillion Anthropic IPO. Winning the lead-left mandate could generate substantial advisory and underwriting fees while reinforcing the firm’s position in technology investment banking. Morgan Stanley, Goldman near top roles on Anthropics IPO
Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among the banks managing Spain’s planned €4 billion, 20-year green-bond offering. The mandate provides a modest near-term fee opportunity and highlights the firm’s continued role in major global debt transactions. Spain mandates new 20-year green bond syndication
Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley projects a multi-quarter growth upcycle for Indian equities and expects the Sensex to reach 89,000 by June 2027. A stronger Indian market could support advisory, underwriting and wealth-management activity, although the forecast has no immediate impact on earnings. India in multi-quarter growth upcycle
Negative Sentiment: A Merrill Lynch team managing approximately $1.2 billion reportedly left Morgan Stanley, alongside advisors from Truist and Wells Fargo. The move could modestly pressure Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management assets and fee revenue, though the broader financial impact is not yet clear. Merrill Lynch poaches Morgan Stanley advisors
Negative Sentiment: Analysts warn that capital-markets momentum is fading in the third quarter, creating the risk of uneven investment-banking results for large banks including Morgan Stanley. This raises near-term concerns for underwriting and advisory revenue after a strong recent period. Capital markets momentum fades

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.75.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of MS stock opened at $216.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $215.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $197.46. The company has a market capitalization of $341.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.21. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $148.35 and a 12-month high of $232.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.8 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan 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 purchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Morgan Stanley

(Free Report)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. The company serves corporations, governments, financial institutions, individuals and institutional investors through a range of advisory, capital-raising, trading and investment-related activities.

Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities business offers investment banking services, including mergers and acquisitions advice, underwriting and capital markets services.