10,630 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS Purchased by M Holdings Securities Inc.

M Holdings Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 10,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,982,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at approximately $78,825,883,310. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,686,881,000 after acquiring an additional 87,533 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,206,144 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,342,532,000 after acquiring an additional 188,296 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,794,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,611,846,000 after acquiring an additional 422,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,235,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,190,585,000 after acquiring an additional 65,739 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 3.1%

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $187.13 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $295.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.85, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $20.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.93 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 19.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.83 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Vinyl Equity adds tools for cap-table management, equity administration and share transfers across private and public markets. The acquisition also includes digital-asset infrastructure, supporting Morgan Stanley’s effort to connect company equity services with its wealth-management business. Financial terms were not disclosed. Morgan Stanley to Acquire Digital-Native Transfer Agent Vinyl Equity
• Positive Sentiment: The strategic rationale is the opportunity to serve companies and employees through the IPO process and beyond. Coverage cited IPO-related flows as a meaningful contributor to Morgan Stanley’s recent wealth-asset inflows, though the potential benefits depend on IPO activity and successful integration of Vinyl. Morgan Stanley buys Vinyl Equity to capture more IPO wealth
• Neutral Sentiment: A separate report says Morgan Stanley is trimming exposure to data-center construction loans as AI financing shifts toward private-credit funds and asset managers. This changes the bank’s exposure to the sector, but the article does not quantify the financial impact. Morgan Stanley Trims Data Center Loan Exposure As AI Financing Shifts

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on MS shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target (down from $250.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $230.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. Erste Group Bank lowered Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.81.

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that provides investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals.

Its Institutional Securities business offers services such as financial advisory, capital raising, sales and trading, and research. The company also provides financial planning, brokerage and banking services through its Wealth Management business, while its Investment Management business offers investment strategies and portfolio management to a range of clients.

Founded in 1935, Morgan Stanley serves clients in the United States and across international markets, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.