TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Reduces Holdings in Morgan Stanley $MS

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. reduced its stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 11.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 217,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 28,728 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $30,626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 6.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,769,345 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,740,149,000 after purchasing an additional 7,636,547 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 1st quarter valued at $767,506,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 21.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 17,056,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,990,030,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,122 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at about $343,236,000. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 99.9% during the first quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 3,111,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $363,075,000 after acquiring an additional 1,555,015 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on MS shares. UBS Group raised their target price on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $122.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $176.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.23.

Morgan Stanley Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $159.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $254.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.30, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $160.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $145.77. Morgan Stanley has a 52-week low of $94.33 and a 52-week high of $171.77.

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

Morgan Stanley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.03%.

About Morgan Stanley

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.