Churchill Financial Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Morgan Stanley $MS

Churchill Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $942,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Powers Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Powers Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,443 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $314,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 3,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 3,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $565,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennebec Savings Bank raised its stake in Morgan Stanley by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,915 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $695,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE MS opened at $201.18 on Monday. Morgan Stanley has a 12 month low of $123.88 and a 12 month high of $203.09. The company has a 50-day moving average of $179.08 and a 200-day moving average of $176.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $317.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.22.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.41. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 14.65% and a return on equity of 17.70%. The company had revenue of $20.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 11.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Morgan Stanley Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 30th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Morgan Stanley’s payout ratio is presently 36.23%.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Stanley

In other news, insider Daniel A. Simkowitz sold 14,690 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.24, for a total transaction of $2,779,935.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 365,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,224,370.48. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Eric F. Grossman sold 11,118 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.75, for a total value of $2,120,758.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 169,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,313,622.25. The trade was a 6.16% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 77,476 shares of company stock worth $14,644,762. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $196.00 to $214.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $171.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.95.

Key Morgan Stanley News

Here are the key news stories impacting Morgan Stanley this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha flagged that Morgan Stanley was upgraded to Buy after its strong first-quarter results, reinforcing the view that recent earnings momentum is still supporting the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also noted that Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) ahead of the GTA VI release, underscoring continued active equity-research influence and a generally constructive tone from the bank’s analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s own recent stock commentary said MS has delivered a strong one-year rally, with investors still debating valuation versus earnings power rather than reacting to any single new company-specific surprise. Article Title

Morgan Stanley Profile

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1935 by Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, the company provides a broad range of investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services to corporations, governments, institutions and individual investors. Leadership has been guided by a senior executive team and board of directors; James P. Gorman has served as the company’s chief executive and chairman in recent years.

The firm’s primary business activities are organized around three principal businesses: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management and Investment Management.