Cetera Investment Advisers Has $61.08 Million Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 8.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 381,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 28,518 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $61,083,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MS. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,607,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $1,263,000 after purchasing an additional 3,661 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 90.9% during the second quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,378,000 after purchasing an additional 7,688 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.3% in the 2nd 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 period. Finally, Jupiter Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 7.8% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Erste Group Bank upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $224.50.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:MS opened at $214.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $337.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.23. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $136.17 and a twelve month high of $232.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $213.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.51%. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be given a dividend of $1.15 per share. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. This represents a $4.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 32.34%.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s recent earnings results were strong, with the firm beating estimates on both EPS and revenue and posting robust year-over-year growth, which supports the stock’s longer-term fundamental case.
• Positive Sentiment: The company continues to receive constructive Wall Street commentary, including a “Moderate Buy” consensus and recent bullish analyst coverage tied to its earnings power and capital markets franchise.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent headlines also pointed to Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit attracting new assets tied to SpaceX IPO interest, which reinforces the strength of its wealth and investment management businesses.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several unrelated market stories involving Morgan Stanley analyst calls on other stocks, plus broader AI/capex and earnings-driven volatility across large-cap tech and financials, may be influencing sentiment around MS indirectly.

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.