Sei Investments Co. Grows Stake in Morgan Stanley $MS

Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 89.7% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,410,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 666,754 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $232,092,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,736,648,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 29.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,917,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,648,354,000 after buying an additional 3,364,080 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 142.4% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,122,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $511,723,000 after buying an additional 1,833,844 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after buying an additional 1,361,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2,332.9% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,406,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $249,710,000 after buying an additional 1,348,683 shares during the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $218.66 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $213.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $189.56. The company has a market capitalization of $344.89 billion, a PE ratio of 17.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23. 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 has a 52 week low of $136.17 and a 52 week high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 15.65%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 12.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

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

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MS. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Thursday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.50.

Key Morgan Stanley News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s economics team raised its AI spending outlook sharply, saying global AI capex could reach $1.4 trillion by 2028; that reinforces the firm’s relevance in one of the market’s strongest investment themes and may support sentiment toward MS. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Media coverage also highlighted Morgan Stanley’s strong first-half performance versus peers, with analysts pointing to the bank’s solid quarterly results as evidence that Wall Street momentum may continue across the sector. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Separately, Morgan Stanley was cited in several sector notes and target updates across other companies, including AI, software, telecom, and industrial names, which keeps the firm visible but does not directly change MS fundamentals today.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.