Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Buys 5,038 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,365 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $8,972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peoples Bank KS bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 138.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Planning Capital Management Corp lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 115.1% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This trade represents a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MS. Barclays upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of MS opened at $123.75 on Thursday. 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 has a 52 week low of $84.43 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.59, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $132.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.72.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 46.60%.

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.