Bank of New Hampshire Purchases 93 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Bank of New Hampshire boosted its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,313 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 93 shares during the quarter. Bank of New Hampshire’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,850,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $881,493,000 after buying an additional 3,369,520 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 382.4% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 1,597,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $166,555,000 after buying an additional 1,266,600 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,404,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,335,495,000 after buying an additional 590,872 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 71.2% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,370,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $140,077,000 after buying an additional 569,789 shares during the period. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at approximately $43,850,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.13.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total value of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 138,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,488,718.71. This represents a 30.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

NYSE MS traded down $1.60 on Tuesday, reaching $127.04. 384,036 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,986,470. The firm has a market cap of $204.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $127.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $111.80. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $83.09 and a fifty-two week high of $136.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.27 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 10.64% and a return on equity of 12.58%. Equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.91%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.32%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.