Machina Capital S.A.S. grew its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 210.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,838 shares during the quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MS. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at $78,825,883,310. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the first 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 buying an additional 87,533 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.7% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,206,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,342,532,000 after buying an additional 188,296 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,794,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,611,846,000 after buying an additional 422,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,235,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,190,585,000 after buying an additional 65,739 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several research firms have recently issued reports on MS. Barclays upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $205.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $214.81.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on MS
Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.6%
NYSE MS opened at $190.59 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $193.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $194.41. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $152.80 and a 12 month high of $232.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.58, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $297.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.23.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.93 by $0.10. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $20.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.51%.
Insider Activity
In other news, Director Judith Miscik sold 2,480 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.21, for a total transaction of $454,360.80. Following the sale, the director owned 64,215 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,764,830.15. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.
Recent Morgan Stanley Headlines
These are some of the MS headlines that stood out recently:
- Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley agreed to acquire Vinyl Equity, a digital transfer-agent platform. The deal would add share-transfer and shareholder-recordkeeping services to Morgan Stanley at Work, potentially strengthening workplace and wealth-management relationships and helping the firm retain clients as private companies go public. Sidley Represents Morgan Stanley in Its Acquisition of Vinyl Equity
- Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley strategist Mike Wilson said the market correction may be nearing its end but urged selectivity. A recovery could benefit trading and investment-banking activity, although this is a broad market view rather than a specific forecast for MS. Morgan Stanley strategist on the market correction
- Negative Sentiment: Director Judith Miscik sold 2,480 shares for about $454,000, trimming her stake by 3.72%. The sale may weigh slightly on sentiment, but she retained more than 64,000 shares, limiting its significance. Morgan Stanley director share sale
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. Its Institutional Securities business offers services such as financial advisory, capital raising, sales and trading, and research. The company also provides financial planning, brokerage and banking services through its Wealth Management business, while its Investment Management business offers investment strategies and portfolio management to a range of clients.
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