Grandview Asset Management LLC Makes New $212,000 Investment in Morgan Stanley $MS

Grandview Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,508 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MS. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 111.0% in the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the first quarter worth about $30,000. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 50.0% during the first quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 58.5% during the second quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on MS. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $127.00 to $160.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Morgan Stanley from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 29,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.13, for a total transaction of $4,092,770.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 399,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,325,688.65. The trade was a 6.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael A. Pizzi sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.62, for a total transaction of $2,531,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,407 shares in the company, valued at $19,181,552.34. This represents a 11.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,149 shares of company stock valued at $20,841,628 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS stock opened at $160.13 on Friday. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $94.33 and a 1 year high of $163.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $148.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.09. The company has a market cap of $255.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.33.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $16.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.15 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.06%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.30%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, July 1st that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 8.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.