D.A. Davidson & CO. Trims Stock Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lowered its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 73,969 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,331 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $9,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MS. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after buying an additional 25,179 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $609,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 112,793 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,758,000 after acquiring an additional 10,107 shares during the period. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 4,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares during the period. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC cut Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Morgan Stanley currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $140.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $226.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $118.93. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $84.43 and a 1-year high of $142.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.39% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 46.60%.

Insider Activity

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total value of $2,380,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.