Legal & General Group Plc Has $1.03 Billion Stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,597,493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 212,551 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.65% of Morgan Stanley worth $1,029,970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MS. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1,147.6% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 262 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $99.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Oppenheimer cut shares of Morgan Stanley from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.73.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $797,775.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 87,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,266,848.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.06, for a total value of $21,012,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 150,000 shares in the company, valued at $15,759,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $797,775.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 87,119 shares in the company, valued at $9,266,848.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 252,000 shares of company stock valued at $26,546,370. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $104.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $100.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $97.12. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $69.42 and a 1 year high of $109.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.96, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $15.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.32 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 10.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.24 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 7.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st were given a $0.925 dividend. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.40%.

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.