Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. decreased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 4.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 848 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $1,949,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.6% in the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 3,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $391,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Omnia Family Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.3% in the third quarter. Omnia Family Wealth LLC now owns 3,063 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $319,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. TFB Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 2,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 33,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,529,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lansing Street Advisors boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 12,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,280,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MS. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $108.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.81.

Morgan Stanley Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $133.67 on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley has a 12-month low of $76.33 and a 12-month high of $136.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The firm has a market cap of $215.35 billion, a PE ratio of 20.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $116.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.55.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.31. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 12.58% and a net margin of 10.64%. The company had revenue of $15.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.27 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 7.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Stephen J. Luczo sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.17, for a total transaction of $7,150,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 138,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,488,718.71. The trade was a 30.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is 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.