Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Buys 99,570 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 66.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 248,870 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 99,570 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $31,288,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MS. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after purchasing an additional 25,179 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.7% during the 3rd 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. Modera Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $970,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 13,505 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the period. Finally, Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 3,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $146.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $129.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $208.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $84.43 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The business has a 50-day moving average of $132.42 and a 200 day moving average of $120.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. The company 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%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.60%.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.