Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc Has $425,000 Stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc lowered its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 83.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 18,026 shares during the quarter. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $425,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MS. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Curio Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Ancora Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 104.7% in the 4th quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $144.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $132.46.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MS opened at $128.70 on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley has a twelve month low of $90.94 and a twelve month high of $142.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.14. The company has a market capitalization of $206.47 billion, a PE ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $117.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.29.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.39. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 14.39%. The firm had revenue of $17.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.925 per share. This represents a $3.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Morgan Stanley news, Director Robert H. Herz sold 800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.32, for a total value of $95,456.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 96,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,545,403.20. This represents a 0.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $4,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 335,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,291,800. The trade was a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,868 shares of company stock valued at $6,019,548. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.