50,000 Shares in Morgan Stanley $MS Acquired by OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC

OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 50,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,043,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Morgan Stanley in the second quarter valued at about $2,234,883,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the second quarter worth about $343,236,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 23.4% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 9,357,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,318,055,000 after buying an additional 1,776,544 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in Morgan Stanley by 319.7% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,092,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $294,727,000 after acquiring an additional 1,593,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE lifted its holdings 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 worth $363,075,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555,015 shares during the period. 84.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Morgan Stanley Stock Performance

MS opened at $179.82 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $285.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.44, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $163.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $150.51. Morgan Stanley has a 1-year low of $94.33 and a 1-year high of $181.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.73. The company had revenue of $17.98 billion for 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 16.40%. The firm’s revenue was up 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.88 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Morgan Stanley will post 8.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 31st. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MS. Wolfe Research upgraded Morgan Stanley from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $198.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $165.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Barclays boosted 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. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Morgan Stanley from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Morgan Stanley has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.38.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other Morgan Stanley news, CEO Edward Pick sold 100,000 shares of Morgan Stanley stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.