Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. Has $978,000 Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 5.0% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Ranch Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 6.9% in 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 buying an additional 7,636,547 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the first quarter valued at about $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,990,030,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,122 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter worth about $343,236,000. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,555,015 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Morgan Stanley in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $180.00 target price for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.23.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 2.8%

NYSE MS opened at $163.78 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $261.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.32. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $94.33 and a 52 week high of $166.77. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $154.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $18.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st will be given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 41.03%.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, July 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 8.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Morgan Stanley 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.