2,969 Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 261,285 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,969 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $49,142,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 143.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Atlatl Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hughes Financial Services LLC now owns 137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Security National Bank of SO Dak bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on MS shares. Citigroup lowered their price target on Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $223.00 to $217.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $214.62.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $184.38 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $290.82 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $198.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $194.29. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $152.80 and a fifty-two week high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $20.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $19.93 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.40% and a net margin of 15.63%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a $1.15 dividend. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.51%.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong deal activity supports investment-banking momentum. Morgan Stanley ranked among the leading advisers by deal value in the automotive, technology, media and telecom, and power sectors during the first three quarters of 2026. Sustained M&A activity could support advisory-fee revenue. Mitsubishi UFJ and Morgan Stanley lead automotive M&A financial advisers’ list Morgan Stanley leads TMT M&A advisers
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is participating in a large AI infrastructure financing. The firm is part of a reported $63 billion financing structure involving Blackstone, Bank of America, and Citigroup to fund AI computing equipment leased to Anthropic. The transaction may create fee income and reinforce MS’s position in rapidly growing AI-related capital markets. Wall Street’s New $63 Billion AI Deal
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst visibility remains high, but investor attention is focused on valuation. Morgan Stanley was among the most-watched stocks on Zacks, while commentary questioned whether its strong multiyear rally and current valuation are justified by returns on capital and future earnings growth. Shares were recently below both their 50-day and 200-day moving averages, signaling continued technical pressure.
• Negative Sentiment: AI exposure also introduces risk concerns. Commentary on the Anthropic financing warned that lenders and investors could face losses if AI hardware becomes obsolete, utilization disappoints, or AI-related valuations decline. Such concerns may weigh on sentiment toward MS even though the deal offers potential fee opportunities. Can Morgan Stanley Justify Its Price After AI Deal Wins?

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, institutions, governments and individual investors. Founded in 1935, the company is headquartered in New York City and serves clients through operations across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other international markets.

Through its Institutional Securities segment, Morgan Stanley offers investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, research, lending and related capital-markets services.