Sarasin & Partners LLP Sells 17,822 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

Sarasin & Partners LLP lowered its position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 36.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 17,822 shares during the quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $6,412,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Purpose Unlimited Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. WFA of San Diego LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Nvest Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1,855.6% in the fourth quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Daiwa Securities Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 2.0%

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $213.99 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $216.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $191.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $337.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.30, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.79. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $140.60 and a 52 week high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 15.65%.The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be issued a $1.15 dividend. This is an increase from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Trending Headlines about Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s possible billion-dollar regional hub in downtown Dallas received approval for a key planning element, supporting the firm’s long-term growth and talent-retention strategy in the region. Morgan Stanley’s possible downtown hub gets sign approval
• Positive Sentiment: Wealth management remains an important stabilizing factor for Morgan Stanley, providing recurring fee revenue and diversification from more market-sensitive investment-banking and trading operations. Why Is Wealth Management Anchoring Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed, suggesting investors may be reassessing Morgan Stanley’s valuation after its strong earnings performance. The company previously reported quarterly EPS of $3.46 and revenue of $21.35 billion, both above consensus estimates.
• Negative Sentiment: A Morgan Stanley-led banking group is reportedly preparing to sell roughly $15 billion of debt connected to a Google-backed Anthropic data center. The transaction could generate fees, but investors may be concerned about exposure to heavily leveraged AI infrastructure financing and the possibility that banks are transferring risk to the market. Morgan Stanley-led banks to offload debt tied to Anthropic data center

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.