Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $348.95 Million Position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,990,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 185,846 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.19% of Morgan Stanley worth $348,951,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,910,200,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 44.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 21,794,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,740,051,000 after acquiring an additional 6,744,333 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 12,318.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,750,845 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $320,941,000 after buying an additional 2,728,693 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,561,560 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,213,599,000 after buying an additional 2,725,335 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter worth about $324,118,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America cut their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $144.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective (up from $125.00) on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Morgan Stanley from $150.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Erste Group Bank raised Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.62.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of MS stock opened at $140.64 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $225.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.51, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $90.94 and a 52 week high of $142.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $125.54.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.39. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 14.98% and a net margin of 12.98%. The company had revenue of $17.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.81 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were given a dividend of $0.925 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $3.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, insider Andrew M. Saperstein sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 335,765 shares in the company, valued at $40,291,800. This represents a 10.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 10,068 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.65, for a total value of $1,124,092.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 199,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,248,942.10. This represents a 4.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,868 shares of company stock worth $6,019,548 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.