4,414 Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Acquired by Bay Capital Advisors LLC

Bay Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $555,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $491,159,000 after purchasing an additional 36,120 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 31.7% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,235,000 after buying an additional 5,155 shares in the last quarter. Nwam LLC bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the third quarter valued at approximately $380,000. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 9.4% during the third quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 7,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $748,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 247,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,818,000 after acquiring an additional 43,664 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.20, for a total value of $1,783,811.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 3.5 %

MS stock opened at $124.38 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $200.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.67, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $130.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $123.31. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $85.01 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $16.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.97%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is currently 46.60%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $135.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.93.

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.