Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Acquired by Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC

Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 24.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 567 shares during the quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $411,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,769,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,740,149,000 after acquiring an additional 7,636,547 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter worth approximately $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,990,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,989,122 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $343,236,000. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 99.9% during the first quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 3,111,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $363,075,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,015 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Zacks Research raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $176.00 to $184.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.38.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $168.15 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $94.33 and a 1 year high of $171.77. The company has a market capitalization of $267.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The business has a 50-day moving average of $161.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $147.53.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $17.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The firm’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total value of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,493,199.24. The trade was a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Morgan Stanley

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.