Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Price Target Raised to $186.00

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $172.00 to $186.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 11.40% from the stock’s current price.

MS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $183.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Morgan Stanley from $215.00 to $190.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $177.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $188.87.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:MS opened at $166.96 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $265.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.34, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.39, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $94.33 and a one year high of $192.68. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $169.42.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.40. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.09% and a return on equity of 16.78%. The firm had revenue of $17.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.69 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Sharon Yeshaya sold 15,838 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.77, for a total transaction of $2,942,225.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 135,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,135,424.08. This trade represents a 10.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 32,968 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.61, for a total transaction of $6,020,286.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 357,342 shares in the company, valued at $65,254,222.62. This trade represents a 8.45% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 129,191 shares of company stock worth $23,736,506 over the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Morgan Stanley

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 29.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,080 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 142.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $511,723,000 after acquiring an additional 1,833,844 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $249,710,000 after buying an additional 1,348,683 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

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.