Mosley Wealth Management Invests $1.89 Million in Morgan Stanley $MS

Mosley Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 10,637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,888,000. Morgan Stanley makes up about 0.9% of Mosley Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RKL Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. RKL Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $382,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 73.7% during the fourth quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 5,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $951,000 after acquiring an additional 2,272 shares during the period. Sepio Capital LP raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 85.6% during the fourth quarter. Sepio Capital LP now owns 7,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,341,000 after acquiring an additional 3,485 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth $180,000. Finally, Xponance LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 180,514 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,047,000 after acquiring an additional 10,390 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MS shares. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $171.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $207.00 price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $153.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.95.

Trending Headlines about Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is being highlighted as a likely beneficiary of a coming wave of AI-related IPOs, with reports saying the bank could earn significant underwriting, trading, and advisory fees from deals such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX. Barrons AI IPO article
• Positive Sentiment: Another report said Morgan Stanley’s leadership is “wide awake” to M&A opportunities, with wealth management and asset management cited as areas for potential inorganic growth, which supports optimism around longer-term expansion. Morgan Stanley M&A opportunities article
• Positive Sentiment: The bank also announced it is expanding AI access on its workplace wealth platform, allowing clients’ AI agents to interact with stock-plan tools, a move that could deepen client relationships and improve the digital wealth-management offering. Morgan Stanley AI access article
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional commentary on Morgan Stanley’s role in upcoming IPO activity and broader market momentum has kept the stock in focus, but these items are more thematic than directly company-specific. Morgan Stanley IPO realities article

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total value of $2,779,935.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $2,120,758.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 169,403 shares in the company, valued at $32,313,622.25. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of MS stock opened at $212.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $128.81 and a 1 year high of $219.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $192.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $180.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $335.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly 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. 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 in the previous year, the business earned $2.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 36.23%.

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.