Partners Wealth Management LLC Takes $378,000 Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Partners Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $378,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MS. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after acquiring an additional 25,179 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased 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 valued at $6,491,000 after purchasing an additional 5,502 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 17,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,827,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter worth about $222,000. Finally, Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter valued at about $225,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. 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 report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $131.60 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $212.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $120.16. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $84.43 and a 12-month high of $142.03. 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 earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The business’s revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.81%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio 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.