Hound Partners LLC Purchases New Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Hound Partners LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 141,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,298,000. Morgan Stanley accounts for about 2.9% of Hound Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 48.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 237,672 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,114,000 after buying an additional 77,579 shares during the last quarter. Family Manage LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 771.6% in the 1st quarter. Family Manage LLC now owns 18,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,019,000 after buying an additional 16,242 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth $1,696,000. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the first quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Everest Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the first quarter. Everest Financial Group LLC now owns 6,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

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Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s recent earnings results were strong, with the firm beating estimates on both EPS and revenue and posting robust year-over-year growth, which supports the stock’s longer-term fundamental case.
• Positive Sentiment: The company continues to receive constructive Wall Street commentary, including a “Moderate Buy” consensus and recent bullish analyst coverage tied to its earnings power and capital markets franchise.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent headlines also pointed to Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit attracting new assets tied to SpaceX IPO interest, which reinforces the strength of its wealth and investment management businesses.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several unrelated market stories involving Morgan Stanley analyst calls on other stocks, plus broader AI/capex and earnings-driven volatility across large-cap tech and financials, may be influencing sentiment around MS indirectly.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on MS. Oppenheimer cut Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $243.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $221.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $214.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.50.

View Our Latest Stock Report on MS

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $214.11 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $136.17 and a 12 month high of $232.25. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $213.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $189.99. The stock has a market cap of $337.71 billion, a PE ratio of 17.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 15.65%.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 firm posted $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a $1.15 dividend. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.34%.

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.

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