Fidelis Capital Partners LLC Acquires 8,024 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 59.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,024 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $2,014,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Norges Bank bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $956,566,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 125,756.8% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,641,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $904,714,000 after purchasing an additional 10,632,735 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the third quarter worth $477,765,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the first quarter worth $451,711,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,474,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,917,159,000 after purchasing an additional 4,098,577 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.30, for a total value of $8,730,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 350,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,555,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 10,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.13, for a total transaction of $841,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 323,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,215,213.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman James P. Gorman sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.30, for a total transaction of $8,730,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 350,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,555,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 201,155 shares of company stock worth $17,564,394. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $97.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.79.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS traded up $0.15 on Thursday, reaching $90.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,749,801 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,915,022. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $69.42 and a 52-week high of $95.57. The company has a market cap of $146.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $15.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 10.87%. The business’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.70 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 6.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a $0.85 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.93%.

Morgan Stanley Company Profile

Morgan Stanley, a financial holding company, provides various financial products and services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It operates through Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments.