Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. Cuts Stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. lowered its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,604 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,237 shares during the quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $3,880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arkadios Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 62.9% during the third quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 5,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 2,152 shares during the last quarter. PFG Advisors boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 8.2% during the third quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 2,596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $212,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 5.0% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 2,692 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 56.2% during the third quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 3,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $311,000 after buying an additional 1,368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.7% during the third quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 106,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,732,000 after buying an additional 758 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.92, for a total transaction of $879,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 313,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,562,040.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.92, for a total transaction of $879,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 313,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,562,040.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 26,655 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.19, for a total value of $2,324,049.45. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 286,835 shares in the company, valued at $25,009,143.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 302,355 shares of company stock worth $26,753,102 in the last ninety days. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of a number of research reports. TheStreet raised Morgan Stanley from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, HSBC raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.07.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $92.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $89.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.10. Morgan Stanley has a fifty-two week low of $69.42 and a fifty-two week high of $95.57. The company has a market cap of $149.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.43.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $15.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 10.87% and a net margin of 9.57%. Morgan Stanley’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.70 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.85 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.69%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 61.93%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.