Lipe & Dalton Reduces Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Lipe & Dalton decreased its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,060 shares during the quarter. Morgan Stanley makes up 1.7% of Lipe & Dalton’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest position. Lipe & Dalton’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,755,000 after acquiring an additional 25,179 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 112,793 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,758,000 after buying an additional 10,107 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 73,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,652,000 after buying an additional 1,408 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 11,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 9.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 62,267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,491,000 after purchasing an additional 5,502 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MS shares. UBS Group increased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In related news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of MS opened at $131.60 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $84.43 and a twelve month high of $142.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.77. The company has a market cap of $212.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments.