Foster & Motley Inc. Invests $1.91 Million in Morgan Stanley $MS

Posted by Geri Gentry on Aug 19th, 2026

Foster & Motley Inc. purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Free Report) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 9,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,906,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter worth about $78,825,883,310,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,736,648,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,040,227,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after acquiring an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MS. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $211.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. CICC Research upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $243.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.75.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Morgan Stanley

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

Positive Sentiment: Analysts give Morgan Stanley an average “Moderate Buy” recommendation, supporting the view that the stock’s long-term earnings and capital-return outlook remains favorable. Morgan Stanley Receives Average Recommendation of Moderate Buy from Analysts
Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is helping lead financing for a potential Anthropic IPO and related credit facility. A successful, large technology offering could generate investment-banking fees and reinforce the firm’s position in high-growth AI financing, although the revenue impact is not yet certain. General Atlantic Reignites IPO Plans With JPMorgan, Goldman and Morgan Stanley
Positive Sentiment: The firm continues to favor quality companies, AI adopters and financials as earnings growth broadens. This positioning could benefit Morgan Stanley’s equity-research, advisory and wealth-management franchises if investor risk appetite remains firm. Morgan Stanley Favours Quality, AI Adopters and Financials as Earnings Growth Broadens
Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley declared dividends on several preferred-stock series. The payments demonstrate continued servicing of preferred capital, but they do not directly change the common stock’s earnings outlook or dividend. Morgan Stanley Preferred Stock Dividend Declaration
Negative Sentiment: Broader technology-market pressure, including sharp declines in semiconductor shares, weighed on major indexes. Morgan Stanley’s exposure to equity-market activity and investor sentiment means this risk-off backdrop may be contributing to near-term weakness despite favorable company-specific coverage.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $217.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $141.03 and a 1-year high of $232.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $217.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $193.58. The company has a market capitalization of $343.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.58, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.22.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.The company had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 buy up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication 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 was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a positive change 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 dividend yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 37.19%.

About Morgan Stanley

(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.