MJP Associates Inc. ADV Grows Stock Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

MJP Associates Inc. ADV grew its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 43.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 984 shares during the quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $455,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,799 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $394,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.7% in the second quarter. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC now owns 9,969 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,420,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. McLean Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.5% in the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 3,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 5,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $707,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Park Capital LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Congress Park Capital LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $458,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.34, for a total value of $16,434,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 574,986 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,493,199.24. The trade was a 14.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 1.1%

MS opened at $163.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. Morgan Stanley has a one year low of $94.33 and a one year high of $171.77. The company has a market cap of $260.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.80, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $159.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $144.99.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $17.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a return on equity of 16.55% and a net margin of 13.85%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.03%.

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.