Kesler Norman & Wride LLC cut its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) by 26.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,105 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,350 shares during the quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,437,334,000 after purchasing an additional 539,544 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,786,350,000 after purchasing an additional 534,708 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,441,505,000 after buying an additional 524,189 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 1st 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 during the period. 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: Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased their holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the second quarter and added exposure to Solana and XRP products. The activity reinforces Morgan Stanley’s expansion into digital-asset products, which could support future fee and client-asset growth. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan load up on crypto ETFs
- Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among five banks advising Carlyle-backed Quest Global on a potential India IPO of up to $1 billion. The mandate could generate advisory and underwriting fees while highlighting the firm’s international capital-markets franchise. Quest Global selects banks for India IPO
- Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley, providing a supportive analyst signal following the company’s strong recent quarterly results. Erste Group lifts Morgan Stanley earnings estimates
- Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley adopted a more constructive view of U.S. IT hardware, citing “chipflation” and faster enterprise spending. The research may benefit the firm’s advisory and trading activity, but it is not a direct change to Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley turns bullish on IT hardware
- Negative Sentiment: A critical report on Morgan Stanley’s direct-lending business raised concerns about recent results and credit-market risks. Although details were limited, the negative coverage may weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s private-credit operations. Morgan Stanley direct lending results
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on MS
Morgan Stanley Stock Performance
NYSE:MS opened at $217.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $342.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.57, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $216.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $193.00. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $141.03 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.
Morgan Stanley declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback 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 generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.
Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a $1.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 37.19%.
Morgan Stanley Profile
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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