Trivest Advisors Ltd Purchases Shares of 96,700 Morgan Stanley $MS

Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 96,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,167,000. Morgan Stanley comprises about 0.8% of Trivest Advisors Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1,855.6% in the 4th quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MS shares. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $170.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $221.00 to $197.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.95.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $32,313,622.25. This trade represents a 6.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 51,668 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.59, for a total transaction of $9,744,068.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 282,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,209,159.78. This trade represents a 15.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

More Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley was named a lead underwriter for Anthropic’s IPO, reinforcing its position in major capital-markets mandates. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Land Anthropic IPO
• Positive Sentiment: The firm also expanded its wealth-management/crypto offering through a referral arrangement with Galaxy Digital, which could support longer-term client engagement and product breadth. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Galaxy Digital Announce Referral Capability for In-Kind Creation of Spot Crypto ETP Shares
• Positive Sentiment: Management continues to see strong opportunities in selected financials names, including a recent positive stance on peers such as UnitedHealth and other coverage names, underscoring active analyst engagement across the franchise. UnitedHealth Positioned As AI Leader: Analyst
• Neutral Sentiment: Media attention around Morgan Stanley’s bullish SpaceX revenue outlook and related IPO coverage keeps the firm in the spotlight, but this is more of a longer-dated franchise story than an immediate earnings driver. Market Chatter: Morgan Stanley Projects SpaceX’s Revenue Reaching $3.4 Trillion in 2040

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

NYSE:MS opened at $212.44 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $188.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $179.05. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $128.81 and a 1-year high of $219.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market cap of $335.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The firm had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.23%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

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.