CoreFirst Bank & Trust Acquires New Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $83,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MS. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 1,490,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $187,393,000 after acquiring an additional 65,456 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at $639,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 110,132,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,845,895,000 after buying an additional 696,646 shares during the period. Finally, Meridian Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at about $371,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

Shares of Morgan Stanley stock opened at $125.25 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $130.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.51. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $85.01 and a one 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.35.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $15.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.925 dividend. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.60%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 13,097 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 197,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,891,872.80. This represents a 6.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Raja Akram sold 17,500 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.01, for a total transaction of $2,380,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 81,440 shares in the company, 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. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. HSBC downgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $131.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $124.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.33.

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.