UBS Group Raises Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Price Target to $214.00

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) had its target price increased by equities researchers at UBS Group from $196.00 to $214.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports. UBS Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 11.87% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on MS. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $171.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Argus boosted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $207.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.17.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of MS traded down $2.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $191.29. 379,316 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,948,387. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $119.99 and a fifty-two week high of $194.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $172.33 and a 200-day moving average of $173.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $302.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.89%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total value of $9,744,068.12. Following the sale, the insider owned 282,142 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,209,159.78. This trade represents a 15.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total value of $2,120,758.50. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 169,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,313,622.25. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 77,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,644,762 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Morgan Stanley

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,648,354,000 after acquiring an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 142.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after acquiring an additional 1,833,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $249,710,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,683 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Daiwa raised its price target on Morgan Stanley to $198 (from $175), which provides fresh valuation support and can prompt buy?side positioning around the new target. Daiwa Raises MS PT
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley has launched a pilot to enable spot crypto trading on its E*Trade platform at 50 bps — undercutting many competitors. If scaled to E*Trade’s multi?million client base this could be a meaningful new retail revenue stream and a customer?acquisition lever. MS Pilots Crypto on E*Trade
• Positive Sentiment: Investment banking and financing activity is robust — Morgan Stanley shows up as a top advisor/lender on large deals (e.g., financing roles on recent joint?venture transactions), supporting near?term fee revenue and pipeline momentum. This also aligns with the firm leading sector M&A rankings by value. MS Tops Construction M&A Rankings
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst activity is elevated — some firms are raising price targets on both MS and companies covered by MS analysts. Note that Daiwa’s PT raise came with a continued “neutral” stance, so the move may be interpreted as measured rather than a consensus upgrade. Daiwa Maintains Neutral
• Negative Sentiment: Industry-level risk: the E*Trade crypto pilot is helping ignite a fee war among brokers (lower retail trading fees). That could boost volumes but also compress margins across brokerage businesses if competitors match pricing — a potential headwind for net trading revenue per trade. Crypto Fee War Coverage

About Morgan Stanley

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.