Advisor OS LLC Buys 290 Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Advisor OS LLC boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the quarter. Advisor OS LLC’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MS. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 10.9% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 256,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,755,000 after purchasing an additional 25,179 shares during the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 5.1% in the third quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 11.5% in the third quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,891 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $614,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.8% in the third quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 141,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,699,000 after acquiring an additional 6,473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Advocates Investment Management bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the third quarter worth about $274,000. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $138.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $104.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup increased their price target on Morgan Stanley from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $107.00 to $142.00 in a report on Friday, November 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.27.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $129.23 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $132.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.78. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $84.43 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $208.19 billion, a PE ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.37.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given 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 2.86%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is 46.60%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 $11,076,654.40. This trade represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. The trade was a 6.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.