Berkeley Capital Partners LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Berkeley Capital Partners LLC decreased its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 81.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,855 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,336 shares during the quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,711,805 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $491,159,000 after purchasing an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.7% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 66,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,971,000 after acquiring an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 20,938 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,185,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 3rd quarter worth about $452,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 11,327 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total transaction of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. HSBC lowered Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.60.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of MS stock opened at $120.49 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $85.01 and a 1 year high of $142.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.34 billion, a PE ratio of 15.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $130.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The business had revenue of $16.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Morgan Stanley Company 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.