Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Has $919,000 Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $919,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 6,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $774,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. 1ST Source Bank increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 15,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,002,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. DGS Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC cut shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.33.

Insider Activity at Morgan Stanley

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 81,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,076,654.40. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of MS opened at $125.25 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $130.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $123.51. 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 has a one year low of $85.01 and a one year high of $142.03. The company has a market cap of $202.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $16.23 billion during 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%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

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.