65,800 Shares in Morgan Stanley $MS Acquired by Premier Fund Managers Ltd

Premier Fund Managers Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 65,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,937,000. Morgan Stanley comprises 1.3% of Premier Fund Managers Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MS. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Morgan Stanley during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new stake in Morgan Stanley during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Morgan Stanley by 143.4% in the 2nd quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in Morgan Stanley in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Hughes Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Morgan Stanley by 55.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hughes Financial Services LLC now owns 137 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.19% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Morgan Stanley

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased their holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs during the second quarter and added exposure to Solana and XRP products. The activity reinforces Morgan Stanley’s expansion into digital-asset products, which could support future fee and client-asset growth. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan load up on crypto ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley is among five banks advising Carlyle-backed Quest Global on a potential India IPO of up to $1 billion. The mandate could generate advisory and underwriting fees while highlighting the firm’s international capital-markets franchise. Quest Global selects banks for India IPO
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its earnings estimates for Morgan Stanley, providing a supportive analyst signal following the company’s strong recent quarterly results. Erste Group lifts Morgan Stanley earnings estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley adopted a more constructive view of U.S. IT hardware, citing “chipflation” and faster enterprise spending. The research may benefit the firm’s advisory and trading activity, but it is not a direct change to Morgan Stanley’s earnings outlook. Morgan Stanley turns bullish on IT hardware
• Negative Sentiment: A critical report on Morgan Stanley’s direct-lending business raised concerns about recent results and credit-market risks. Although details were limited, the negative coverage may weigh on sentiment toward the firm’s private-credit operations. Morgan Stanley direct lending results

Morgan Stanley Price Performance

MS opened at $217.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $342.76 billion, a PE ratio of 17.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.65, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50-day moving average is $216.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $193.00. Morgan Stanley has a 1 year low of $141.03 and a 1 year high of $232.25.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $3.46 EPS 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 business had revenue of $21.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Morgan Stanley will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, June 24th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Morgan Stanley Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were given a dividend of $1.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 31st. This is a positive change from Morgan Stanley’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Morgan Stanley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.19%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Dbs Bank raised their price objective on Morgan Stanley from $185.00 to $220.00 in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Daiwa Securities Group increased their target price on shares of Morgan Stanley from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Morgan Stanley from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Morgan Stanley from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Morgan Stanley from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.75.

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.