Swedbank AB Boosts Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Swedbank AB raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 906,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,953 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $160,867,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after buying an additional 1,185 shares during the last quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 69.0% in the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 8,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after buying an additional 3,661 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 90.9% in the second quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,378,000 after buying an additional 7,688 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 6.3% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 263,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,127,000 after buying an additional 15,623 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 7.8% in the second quarter. Jupiter Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,805,000 after buying an additional 3,807 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of MS stock opened at $201.18 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $179.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $176.01. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $123.88 and a 1-year high of $203.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $317.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.23%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MS shares. Evercore upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $207.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Daiwa Securities Group upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha flagged that Morgan Stanley was upgraded to Buy after its strong first-quarter results, reinforcing the view that recent earnings momentum is still supporting the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also noted that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) ahead of the GTA VI release, underscoring continued active equity-research influence and a generally constructive tone from the bank’s analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own recent stock commentary said MS has delivered a strong one-year rally, with investors still debating valuation versus earnings power rather than reacting to any single new company-specific surprise. Article Title

Morgan Stanley 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.