Buckley Wealth Management LLC Buys 96 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Buckley Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Buckley Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Peoples Bank KS purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Planning Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 115.1% during the 3rd quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now 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. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $115.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $186.15 billion, a PE ratio of 14.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.23. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $85.01 and a one year high of $142.03. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.