Royal Fund Management LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 586.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,724 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,700,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 70,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,235,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares during the period. NBT Bank N.A. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth $2,438,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 91.6% during the third quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 6,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,171,000 after purchasing an additional 2,976 shares in the last quarter. Carter Financial Group INC. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $283,000. Finally, Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the third quarter worth approximately $13,241,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.
Morgan Stanley Stock Performance
Morgan Stanley stock traded down $4.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $179.40. 7,628,448 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,152,328. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $152.80 and a 12-month high of $232.25. The business’s 50-day moving average is $200.92 and its 200-day moving average is $204.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $282.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.22.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.10. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The firm had revenue of $20.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.80 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.51%.
Morgan Stanley News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is expanding its wealth-management strategy in the United Kingdom, targeting the country’s substantial pool of household savings. The initiative supports the firm’s long-term effort to diversify beyond market-sensitive investment banking and equities activity. Morgan Stanley Bets on UK Savers After Equities Revenue Jumps 41%
- Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting a 41% increase in equities revenue reinforces the strength of Morgan Stanley’s trading and institutional-securities businesses, adding support to the company’s recent earnings momentum.
- Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are positioning asset tokenization as a significant growth opportunity. Wider adoption of tokenized financial assets could create new investment-banking, trading, custody and wealth-management revenue streams over time. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Frame Tokenization as Key Growth Opportunity
- Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary notes that Morgan Stanley has fallen about 11% over the past month and questions whether the decline reflects an attractive entry point or an elevated valuation. This framing may be contributing to short-term caution, even though it is not a new company-specific warning. Morgan Stanley Just Dropped 11% in a Month
- Neutral Sentiment: Higher price targets for Morgan Stanley preferred stock are relevant primarily to preferred shareholders and have limited direct implications for the common stock.
- Negative Sentiment: With the common shares trading below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, investors may be taking profits or reducing exposure after a strong run, despite solid fundamentals. This technical and valuation pressure appears to be the most likely explanation for the weaker share performance today.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut their target price on Morgan Stanley from $260.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Weiss Ratings raised Morgan Stanley from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, HSBC raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $219.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.62.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley Profile
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, institutions, governments and individual investors. Founded in 1935, the company is headquartered in New York City and serves clients through operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international markets.
Through its Institutional Securities segment, Morgan Stanley offers investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, research, lending and related capital-markets services.
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