Cambient Family Office LLC Invests $737,000 in Morgan Stanley $MS

Cambient Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 4,151 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $737,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 29,744 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,281,000 after acquiring an additional 8,512 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 103.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 12,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,019,000 after acquiring an additional 6,448 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 679.8% during the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 42,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,527,000 after acquiring an additional 36,963 shares in the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 34.4% in the 3rd quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 50,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,950,000 after purchasing an additional 12,804 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,712,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,543,831,000 after purchasing an additional 354,871 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore increased their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $171.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.35.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Ridgeback Group agreed to buy Metra Living for £1.045 billion, expanding MS into U.K. rental housing and underscoring its private-markets and real estate growth strategy. Morgan Stanley (MS) Buys Into UK Rentals With £1.045b Metra Living Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage says Morgan Stanley is also benefiting from renewed investor enthusiasm for banks, with the broader financial sector hitting records ahead of the Fed meeting, which is helping support MS sentiment. Big Bank Stocks Hit Records Ahead of Fed Meeting
• Positive Sentiment: News flow continues to frame MS as a long-term growth and wealth-management winner, with commentary highlighting its ambition to reach $10 trillion in client assets and potential upside from a future SpaceX IPO mandate. Morgan Stanley (MS) Is Chasing $10 Trillion In Wealth And A SpaceX Boost
• Neutral Sentiment: Other headlines around Morgan Stanley today were mostly research-related, including notes on oil and sector calls, which are more likely to affect sentiment around specific industries than MS’s core earnings outlook.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 365,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. This represents a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total transaction of $2,120,758.50. Following the transaction, the insider directly 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE:MS opened at $223.69 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $198.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.49. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $130.90 and a 52 week high of $230.47. The company has a market capitalization of $352.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.02 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $20.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 11.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.