State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Buys 15,160 Shares of Morgan Stanley $MS

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,136,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,160 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $160,038,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MS. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Morgan Stanley by 2.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.5% during the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 3,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc lifted its stake in Morgan Stanley by 12.1% in the second quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 674 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. boosted its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 1.5% in the second quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 5,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $707,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $94,493,199.24. This trade represents a 14.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on MS shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $145.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $122.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Citigroup upped their target price on Morgan Stanley from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Morgan Stanley from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $198.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.38.

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MS opened at $168.15 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $161.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $147.53. 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 company has a market capitalization of $267.25 billion, a PE ratio of 17.25, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.33. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $94.33 and a 1-year high of $171.77.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $17.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.42 billion. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 13.85% and a return on equity of 16.55%. Morgan Stanley’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.88 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.03%.

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.