Morgan Stanley $MS Shares Bought by Czech National Bank

Czech National Bank increased its position in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 341,206 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,552 shares during the period. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Morgan Stanley were worth $71,326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,718,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,253,554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361,940 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 103,854,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $18,437,334,000 after buying an additional 539,544 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,070,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,786,350,000 after buying an additional 534,708 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Morgan Stanley by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 25,018,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,441,505,000 after buying an additional 524,189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Morgan Stanley by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,326,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,686,881,000 after buying an additional 87,533 shares in the last quarter. 84.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Morgan Stanley Trading Down 2.0%

Morgan Stanley stock opened at $213.99 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $337.52 billion, a PE ratio of 17.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.22. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $216.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $191.66. Morgan Stanley has a 52 week low of $140.60 and a 52 week high of $232.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.89 by $0.57. Morgan Stanley had a net margin of 15.65% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be given a $1.15 dividend. This is a boost from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.19%.

Morgan Stanley announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 5.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on MS. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $243.00 price target on shares of Morgan Stanley in a report on Monday, July 20th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Morgan Stanley from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Morgan Stanley in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

Key Headlines Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s possible billion-dollar regional hub in downtown Dallas received approval for a key planning element, supporting the firm’s long-term growth and talent-retention strategy in the region. Morgan Stanley’s possible downtown hub gets sign approval
• Positive Sentiment: Wealth management remains an important stabilizing factor for Morgan Stanley, providing recurring fee revenue and diversification from more market-sensitive investment-banking and trading operations. Why Is Wealth Management Anchoring Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed, suggesting investors may be reassessing Morgan Stanley’s valuation after its strong earnings performance. The company previously reported quarterly EPS of $3.46 and revenue of $21.35 billion, both above consensus estimates.
• Negative Sentiment: A Morgan Stanley-led banking group is reportedly preparing to sell roughly $15 billion of debt connected to a Google-backed Anthropic data center. The transaction could generate fees, but investors may be concerned about exposure to heavily leveraged AI infrastructure financing and the possibility that banks are transferring risk to the market. Morgan Stanley-led banks to offload debt tied to Anthropic data center

About Morgan Stanley

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.